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CHARLES   DARWIN  AND   OTHER 
ENGLISH   THINKERS 


CHARLES    DARWIN 

AND 

OTHER  ENGLISH  THINKERS 

WITH   REFERENCE    TO    THEIR 
RELIGIOUS  AND  ETHICAL  VALUE 

BY 

S.  PARKES   CADMAN 


A  SERIES  OF   LECTURES   DELIVERED   BEFORE 

THE  BROOKLYN  INSTITUTE  OF  ARTS 

AND  SCIENCES  DURING  THE 

AUTUMN  OF  1910 


London:   JAMES   CLARKE   &   CO. 
THE    PILGRIM    PRESS 

BOSTON  NEW  YORK  CHICAGO 


COPTRIG  H  T,     1911 
BY     LUTHER    H.    CARY 


IHE  •    PLIMPTON  •    PKRSS 

f  W  I^  •  O  ] 
NORWOOD  •  MASS  •  U  •  S  •  A 


0,'  W 


TO 

MR.  FRANK  S.  JONES 

OF   BKOOKLYN 

THIS   BOOK,   WHICH   OWES   MUCH   TO   HIS 

^  FRIENDSHIP   AND    INSPIRATION 

*5  IS    RESPECTFULLY 

Ca  DEDICATED 

M 


PREFACE 

THESE  lectures  were  delivered  under  the 
auspices  of  The  Brooklyn  Institute  of 
Arts  and  Sciences  during  the  months  of 
November  and  December,  1910.  At  the  kindly 
suggestion  of  Professor  Franklin  W.  Hooper, 
the  Secretary  of  the  Institute,  they  have  been 
prepared  for  the  press.  While  they  remain 
substantially  as  they  were  given,  they  have  been 
revised  with  the  view  of  rendering  them  more 
serviceable  to  ministers  and  laymen  alike. 
I  shall  feel  abundantly  rewarded  if  the  volume 
stimulates  the  reader  to  further  research  con- 
cerning the  men  and  the  subjects  with  which 
it  deals. 

It  has  not  been  an  easy  task  faithfully  to 
convey  the  exact  meanings  and  points  of  differ- 
ence in  the  close  reasoning  of  these  scientific 
and  philosophical  writers  ;  hence  I  have  thought 
it  wise  to  allow  them  to  speak  for  themselves 
whenever  possible.  It  will  probably  be  said 
that  many  facts  of  prime  importance  have  been 
omitted,  and  some  others  misinterpreted.  This 
is  more  than  likely;  and  if  so,  I  must  be  held 
wholly  res])onsil:)le  for  it.  But  I  sincerely  hope 
that  I  have  been  able  to  give  a  little  direction 
in  that  path  which  leads  to  a  more  complete 
apprehension  of  the  Truth. 

[vii] 


Preface 

I  am  profoundly  convinced  that  science  and 
philosophy  and  ethics,  however  they  may 
appear  on  the  surface,  are  the  friends  and  not 
the  foes  of  reh'gion.  And  I  beheve  that  a  new 
day  has  dawned  for  the  Christian  Church,  in 
which  she  can  fearlessly  and  yet  reverently 
utilize  their  newer  conceptions  for  the  enrich- 
ment of  her  message  to  the  generation  she 
seeks  to  serve.  It  has  not  been  my  aim  to 
write  a  constructive  work  along  these  lines, 
but  simply  to  place  in  the  most  favorable 
light  consistent  with  accuracy  a  group  of 
thinkers  whose  teachings  have  been  sometimes 
supposed  to  stand  in  irreconcilable  contra- 
diction to  the  essential  truths  of  Christianity. 

I  take  this  opportunity  to  record  my  sincere 
thanks  to  my  colleague  in  the  pastorate  of 
the  Central  Congregational  Church,  the  Rev. 
William  Muir  Auld,  whose  wide  knowledge  of 
these  subjects  has  been  of  great  assistance  to  me. 
He  has  also  favored  me  by  reading  the  proofs 
and  preparing  the  Index  and  Bibliography. 

S.  Parkes  Cadman. 
Brooklyn,  New  York  City. 


[viil] 


CONTENTS 

LECTURE  I  PAGE 

Charles  DARWiii 1 

LECTURE  II 
Thomas  Henry  Huxley 45 

LECTURE  III 
John  Stuart  Mill 89 

LECTURE  IV 
James  Martineau.    Part  I 141 

LECTURE  V 
James  Martineau.    Part  II 179 

LECTURE  VI 
Matthew  Arnold.    Part  I 207 

LECTURE  VII 
IVLvtthew  Arnold.    Part  II 239 

BiBUOGRAPHY .       271 


IX 


FIRST   LECTURE 
CHARLES  DARWIN 


*'Zef  him,  therefore,  who  would  arrive  at  a  knowl- 
edge of  nature,  train  his  moral  sense;  let  him  act  and 
conceive  in  accordance  with  the  noble  essence  of  his 
soul;  and,  as  if  of  herself,  nature  will  become  open 
to  him.  Moral  action  is  the  great  and  only  experi- 
ment in  which  all  riddles  of  the  most  manifold 
appearance  explain  themselves.^' 

NOVALIS. 


DARWIN   AND   OTHER 

ENGLISH  THINKERS 

I 

CHARLES  DARWIN 

THE  year  1809  was  the  annus  mirabilis  of 
the  nineteenth  century  for  both  Europe  and 
America.  It  witnessed  the  advent  of  Lincoln, 
Wendell  Holmes,  and  Poe  on  this  continent;  on 
the  other,  of  Gladstone,  Tennyson,  FitzGerald, 
Chopin,  and  Mendelssohn.  Last,  but  not  least, 
Charles  Darwin  was  born  in  the  ancient  and 
historic  town  of  Shrewsbury,  England,  on  Feb- 
ruary the  12th  of  that  remarkable  year.  The 
visitor  to  his  birthplace  cannot  fail  to  be  struck 
by  the  configuration  of  the  town,  standing  as  it 
does  on  the  crest  of  a  bold  eminence  encircled 
by  the  River  Severn,  and  commanding  a  wide 
and  varied  view  of  the  surrounding  country.  It 
is  a  quaint  and  beautiful  borough,  with  winding 
lanes  and  narrow  streets,  cloistered  retreats, 
half-timbered  and  Jacobean  houses,  and  stately 
churches  which  cherish  with  a  proud  regret  the 
days  that  are  no  more.  In  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries  "to  go  to  town"  meant  for 
the  gentry  of  the  Midland  shires  to  go  to  Shrews- 
bury. Its  civic  importance  is  still  considerable, 
and  the  remains  of  the  Castle  with  the  venerable 
[3] 


Charles    Darwin 

and  flourishing  Grammar  School  are  links  be- 
tween the  past  and  the  present. 

Dr.  Robert  Waring  Darwin,  the  father  of 
Charles,  was  the  leading  physician  of  the  com- 
munity; a  man  of  stalwart  physique,  noted  for 
his  professional  skill  and  practical  sagacity,  and 
esteemed  by  rich  and  poor  alike  for  the  wisdom 
of  his  counsel  and  the  helpfulness  of  his  dis- 
position. His  father,  Erasmus  Darwin,  grand- 
father to  Charles,  was  also  a  physician,  well 
known  as  the  author  of  Zobyiomia,  or  The  Laws 
of  Organic  Life  (1794),  a  minor  attempt  to  fol- 
low the  lead  of  Lucretius  in  his  De  Natura  Rerum. 
The  production  was  marked  by  excessive  gen- 
eralization and  a  tendency  to  indulge  too  freely 
in  theoretical  speculation.  These  features  found 
a  robust  but  more  restrained  expression  in  the 
works  of  his  grandson.  Darwin's  mother  was  a 
daughter  of  Josiah  Wedgwood,  whose  artistic 
achievements  in  pottery  rank  with  those  of 
Palissy,  His  maternal  grandmother  was  one  of  a 
remarkable  bevy  of  sisters  —  the  Aliens  of  Cres- 
selly  — of  whom  two  married  Wedgwoods;  one, 
Sir  James  Mackintosh  the  philosopher;  and 
another,  Sismondi  the  historian.  Darwin's 
aptitude  for  reflection,  his  patient  fidelity,  his 
absence  of  self-assertion,  his  magnanimity  and 
sweetness  of  disposition,  were  in  large  measure 
inherited  from  his  mother. 

The  Darwin  home,  known  as  "The  Mount," 
was  built  by  his  father  in  1800,  and  stands  on 
[4] 


Charles  Darwin 

tlie  high  ground  overlooking  the  town.  It  is  a 
plain  substantial  mansion  with  terraced  walks 
on  the  western  front  descending  to  the  river. 
From  its  elevated  position  there  is  an  unequaled 
prospect  of  the  scene  of  the  Battle  of  Shrews- 
bury, fought  in  1403,  and  the  dim  blue  hills  of 
Wales  beyond.  In  the  distance  are  the  gray, 
crumbling  walls  of  Haughmond  Abbey;  and 
behind  them  the  woods  of  Attingham,  skirting 
the  landscape  with  stretches  of  somber  green. 
The  Severn  turns  abruptly  toward  the  south, 
and  flows  through  one  of  the  loveliest  valleys 
of  England,  past  the  castellated  rocks  of 
Bridgnorth  and  the  cathedral  cities  of  Worces- 
ter and  Gloucester,  until  it  meets  the  tidal 
waters  of  the  Bristol  Channel.  From  below 
the  house  ascend  the  hoarse  murmurs  of  the 
traffic  of  the  town,  the  hum  of  busy  marketers, 
and  the  chiming  of  bells  from  many  steeples. 

When  a  child,  Darwin  was  taken  by  his 
mother  to  the  Unitarian  chapel  where  Samuel 
Taylor  Coleridge  once  held  forth  with  Hazlitt 
as  one  of  his  hearers.  From  1818  to  1825  he 
was  a  scholar  of  the  Grammar  School,  a  royal 
foundation  of  King  Edward  VI.  He  would 
frequently  run  the  mile  or  more  between  his 
home  and  the  scliool,  praying  Heaven's  aid 
that  he  might  arrive  punctually.  Possibly 
he  stayed  too  long  in  the  amateur  laboratory 
he  and  his  brother  had  fitted  up  in  the  garden 
tool-house,    or    tarried    over    his    growing    col- 


Charles  Darwin 

lections,  which  at  first  included  seals  and 
foreign  coins,  stones  and  minerals,  and  later 
beetles  and  other  insects.  When  he  was  ten, 
he  studied  the  pebbles  in  front  of  the  hall 
door,  and  wondered  how  a  glacial  boulder  of 
local  fame  had  been  deposited  in  a  place  near 
at  hand.  It  is  easy  to  understand  how  the 
narrow  and  pedantic  system  of  education  which 
then  prevailed  in  English  secondary  schools 
repelled  this  shy  and  retiring  lad  of  opposite 
tastes  and  predilections.  The  severely  classical 
atmosphere  was  so  uncongenial  to  his  desire 
for  natural  pursuits  that  he  was  provoked 
into  rebellion.  Dr.  Butler,  then  head  master, 
and  later  bishop  of  Lichfield,  referred  to  young 
Darwin  in  the  most  unappreciative  terms, 
because  he  preferred  to  dabble  in  chemical 
experiments  rather  than  conjugate  Latin  verbs 
and  memorize  Greek  paradigms.  One  picture 
of  his  schooldays  shows  him  curled  up  in  an 
embrasured  window  of  the  Elizabethan  building, 
reading  Shakespeare  by  the  hour.  "Nothing," 
he  confessed  in  later  years,  "could  have  been 
worse  for  the  development  of  my  mind  than 
Dr.  Butler's  school,  as  it  was  strictly  classical, 
nothing  else  being  taught  except  a  little  ancient 
geography  and  history.  The  school  as  a  means 
of  education  to  me  was  simply  a  blank."  ^ 

As  he  approached  his  majority  he  evinced  a 
liking  for  field  sports  which  unnecessarily  dis- 

1  Darwin's  Life  and  Letters  (\.  Y.,  1893),  Vol.  I,  p.  28. 


Charles  Darwin 

turbed  his  father;  for  after  all  it  was  at  bottom 
a  nature  interest,  just  as  were  his  long  walks 
in  the  rural  lanes  of  the  vicinity.  These  were 
intercepted  by  his  enrolment  at  Edinburgh 
University  to  prepare  himself  for  the  family 
vocation  of  physician  and  surgeon.  Here  he 
remained  two  years.  Among  his  fellow  stu- 
dents were  his  elder  brother,  Erasmus,  and  his 
friend  Robert  Grant,  afterward  professor  of 
zoology  in  University  College,  London.  He 
again  followed  his  own  course.  Most  of  the 
lectures  were  to  him  "intolerably  dull,"  — 
even  geology,  the  science  to  which  in  after 
life  he  was  deeply  attached,  was  viewed  with 
violent  aversion.  Indeed,  he  vowed  that  never 
again  would  he  read  a  book  on  the  subject. 
Biological  research  chiefly  occupied  his  atten- 
tion, and  it  became  increasingly  evident  that 
he  had  no  liking  for  his  father's  intentions. 
Realizing  this,  the  good  Doctor  made  the  ill- 
starred  suggestion  that  he  should  enter  Cam- 
bridge and  qualify  for  Holy  Orders.  The 
project  was  entered  upon;  but  as  theology  was 
more  repugnant  to  him  than  medicine  or  the 
classics,  it  speedily  came  to  grief.  Neverthe- 
less his  residence  at  Cambridge,  though  brief, 
secured  for  him  the  friendship  of  men  of  mark 
whose  recognition  encouraged  him  to  have 
confidence  in  himself,  and  whose  kindly  sym- 
pathies stimulated  his  enthusiasm  for  the  study 
of  the  general  order  of  nature.     Among  these 


Charles  D  arivin 

were  Professor  Henslow  (the  first  man  to  take 
the  measure  of  Darwin's  great  possibilities),  Dr. 
William  Whewell,  Professor  Ramsay,  and  his 
uncle  Sir  James  Mackintosh.  Darwin  was 
known  among  the  undergraduates  as  "the  man 
who  walks  with  Henslow."^  From  this  unusual 
circle  of  social  and  learned  intercourse  accrued 
the  main  benefits  of  his  Cambridge  period. 
Not  that  he  shirked  other  work;  he  was  tenth 
in  the  list  of  candidates  of  1831  for  the  degree 
of  Bachelor  of  Arts,  he  studied  and  enjoyed  the 
arguments  of  Paley,  and  was  fairly  proficient 
in  mathematics,  while  even  in  the  despised 
classics  he  obtained  tolerably  good  results. 
If  Darwin's  education  did  not  give  him  a  full 
mind,  it  certainly  gave  him  an  eagerness  for 
unraveling  complex  subjects  and  the  power 
of  reasoning  out  his  own  conclusions.  His 
scientific  proclivities  were  accentuated  by  read- 
ing Baron  Humboldt's  Personal  Narrative  and 
Herschel's  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Philoso- 
'phy.  These  volumes  stirred  in  him  the  ambi- 
tion to  add  "'even  the  most  humble  contribution 
to  the  noble  structure  of  natural  science."  - 
He  was  introduced  to  the  eloquent  and  influ- 
ential Sedgwick,  who  persuaded  him  to  revoke 
his  hasty  decision  respecting  the  study  of 
geology.  Ultimately  it  became  apparent  that 
he  was  not  entirely  satisfied  with  the  orthodox 
view  of  the  earth's  formation,  and  he  did  not 

^  Darwin's  Lijc  and  Ldfcm,  p.  44.  ^  Jl/id,^  p.  47. 


Charles  Darwin 

hesitate  to  oppose  some  conclusions  Sedgwick 
entertained.  Their  tour  in  North  Wales  for 
the  purpose  of  examining  certain  strata  led  to 
an  amiable  but  decided  difference  of  opinion 
as  to  the  validity  of  the  current  method  of 
geological  interpretation.  At  the  conclusion 
of  their  investigation  he  found  awaiting  him 
an  offer  to  join  the  Beagle,  due  to  the  friendly 
interest  of  Henslow,  and  which  combined  recrea- 
tion with  suitable  work.  From  the  moment  he 
accepted  it,  his  personal  achievements  became 
a  necessary  and  important  part  of  the  history 
of  mankind. 

The  voyage  of  the  Beagle,  now  a  familiar 
story,  was  by  far  the  most  important  event 
in  Darwin's  career.  It  set  the  seal  upon  the 
nature  of  his  life-work,  and  molded  his  mental 
gifts  for  the  onerous  tasks  that  awaited  them. 
The  first  genuine  discipline  of  his  mind  was 
due  to  his  enforced  solitude  and  detachment  on 
board  ship,  necessitating  steady  industry  and 
concentrated  attention  —  habits  which,  though 
tardily  acquired,  served  him  well  and  made  pos- 
sible the  marvelous  results  he  afterward  ob- 
tained. On  his  return  home  his  father  viewed 
with  astonishment  the  changes  wrought  in  him, 
and  excitedly  exclaimed,  "Even  the  shape  of 
his  head  has  altered!" 

The  official  record  of  the  cruise,  entitled 
The  Journal  of  a  Naturalist's  Voyage  Round 
[91 


Charles  Darwin 

the  World,  appeared  in  1839,  and  was  respect- 
fully dedicated  to  Sir  Charles  Lyell.  Darwin 
was  always  conscious  of  his  indebtedness  to 
this  distinguished  thinker,  and  throughout  their 
long  and  intimate  intercourse  he  subscribed 
himself  as  Lyell's  "affectionate  pupil."  "I 
always  feel  as  if  my  books  came  half  out  of 
Lyell's  brain,"  he  says,  "and  that  I  never 
acknowledge  this  sujQBciently."  ^  Henslow  had 
placed  a  copy  of  the  first  volume  of  Lyell's 
Principles  of  Geology  in  Darwin's  hands  when 
he  embarked  on  the  Beagle,  with  the  warning 
that,  while  he  should  by  all  means  read  it,  he 
should  pay  no  attention  to  its  wild  theories  and 
conclusions.  The  young  naturalist,  however,  was 
rapidly  becoming  a  self-reliant  student,  and 
now  and  afterward  Lyell's  works  and  their 
far-reaching  implications  altered  the  whole 
tone  of  his  thinking.  They  so  strongly  in- 
fluenced his  own  conclusions  that  but  for  their 
inspiration  the  Origin  of  Species  might  never 
have  been  written.  In  1845  he  again  addressed 
himself  in  a  letter  to  his  master,  "I  have  long 
wished,  not  so  much  for  your  sake  as  for  my 
own  feelings  of  honesty,  to  acknowledge  more 
plainly  than  by  mere  reference  how  much,  geo- 
logically, I  owe  you.  Those  authors,  however, 
who,  like  you,  educate  people's  minds  as  well 
as  teach  them  special  facts,  can  never,  I  should 
think,  have  full  justice  done  them  except  by 

^  More  Letters  of  Darwin,  p.  117. 
[101 


Charles   Darwin 

posterity;  for  the  mind  thus  insensibly  im- 
proved hardly  perceives  its  own  upward  ascent." 
The  Journal  met  with  high  consideration  from 
the  first;  men  of  learning,  in  both  Europe  and 
America,  accorded  it  their  hearty  praise  as  a 
unique  record  of  travel  and  research.  The 
Quarterly  Review,^  the  magazine  of  scientific 
progress,  dealt  at  length  with  its  observations 
and  declared  they  contained  valuable  material 
for  constructive  thought.  The  style  was  simple, 
yet  vivid ;  the  descriptions  were  those  of  a  devo- 
tee who  scrutinized  every  curious  phenomenon; 
the  facts,  many  being  entirely  new,  were  all  care- 
fully detailed.  While  possessing  the  romantic 
interest  attached  to  an  excursion  in  hitherto 
unknown  fields,  the  volume  has  been  conspicuous 
for  its  impressiveness  and  intellectual  integrity. 
Darwin  did  not,  as  many  have  supposed, 
discover  the  doctrine  of  evolution.  Nor  was 
he  by  any  means  the  first  exponent  of  the 
origin  of  species,  or  of  the  notion  that  species 
became  changed  in  the  course  of  time.  The  con- 
ception of  biological  development  prevailed  long 
before  his  day.  It  was  known  to  the  classical 
writers,  and  persisted  more  or  less  throughout 
the  periods  following  on  the  progress  of  Human- 
ism and  the  Revival  of  Learning.  Among  mod- 
erns, Goethe,  De  Candolle  the  Elder,  Lamarck, 
Buffon,  and  Chambers  had  foreshadowed  some 
of  the  conceptions   that  Darwin's  discoveries 

1  Vol.  LXV.  p.  2:24. 
[Ill 


Charles  Darwin 

afterward  placed  on  a  sound  basis.  An  eminent 
authority.  Professor  Judd,  relates  an  amusing 
conversation  lie  had  with  Matthew  Arnold 
in  1871.  "I  cannot  understand,"  said  Arnold, 
"why  you  scientific  people  make  such  a  fuss 
about  Darwin.  It's  all  in  Lucretius."  To 
which  Judd  replied,  "Yes,  Lucretius  guessed 
what  Darwin  proved."  Whereupon  Arnold 
rejoined,  "Ah!  that  only  shows  how  much 
greater  Lucretius  really  was,  for  he  divined  a 
truth  which  Darwin  spent  a  life  of  labor  in 
groping  for."  ^  The  author  of  Culture  and 
Anarchy  underestimated  the  real  worth  of 
Darwin,  not  only  in  placing  a  poet's  intuition 
over  against  a  scientist's  discovery,  but  in 
failing  to  appreciate  the  herculean  toil  of  more 
than  thirty  years  devoted  to  the  application 
and  illustration  of  a  thesis  which  many  had 
surmised  yet  could  not  demonstrate. 

Previous  to  his  time  there  had  been  constant 
discussions  among  men  of  science  as  to  the 
possibility  of  substantiating  the  prevailing 
views  regarding  the  immutability  of  species. 
Students  were  tempted  to  exclaim  concern- 
ing Mosaists  and  evolutionists,  "A  plague  on 
both  your  houses!"  Debates  were  endless 
and  fruitless;  the  theological  thought  of  the 
day,  which  was  also  the  thought  of  many 
scientists,  stood  directly  in  the  path  of  investi- 
gation.    Geological  formations  were  attributed 

1  Coining  of  Erolufion,  pp.  3-4. 
[12  1 


Charles  Darwin 

to  a  series  of  cataclysms  of  which  the  Deluge 
was  the  last  and  most  important.  With  each 
of  these  catastrophes  all  living  creation  was 
completely  destroyed  and  the  planet  retenanted 
by  an  act  of  special  and  direct  creation.  This 
position  was  meant  to  conform  with  the  biblical 
narratives,  and  seemed  to  clinch  the  claim  for 
their  divine  inspiration.  The  fatal  objection, 
however,  was  the  lack  of  uniformity  and  con- 
tinuity, which  unprejudiced  men  felt  were 
essential  to  any  true  interpretation  of  the 
natural  order.  Violent  interferences  and  new 
creative  acts  were,  in  their  opinion,  poor  sub- 
stitutes for  the  reign  of  law,  and  there  was 
a  growing  tendency  among  the  "Uniformita- 
rians,"  as  they  were  called,  to  seek  the  method  of 
divine  operation  in  something  more  stable  and 
capable  of  rational  explanation.  But  the  ab- 
sence of  a  determinative  principle  dealing  with 
the  evidence  on  the  crucial  point  bewildered 
these  advocates.  They  were  silenced  in  the 
presence  of  a  mystery  which  both  attracted 
and  repelled  them. 

Darwin's  attempt  at  solution  was  not  a 
conscious  effort.  'VMien  he  excavated  the  fossil 
remains  of  animals  from  the  South  American 
pampas,  he  saw  how  closely  they  resembled 
their  living  progenies  around  him,  and  grave 
doubts  touching  the  accuracy  of  the  catas- 
trophic theory  flitted  through  his  mind.  The 
same  striking  correspondences  existed  else- 
[131 


Charles  Darwin 

where,  and  he  began  to  grope  for  an  adequate 
explanation  of  these  strange  analogies.  While 
on  the  Beagle  the  task  of  collecting  and  describ- 
ing specimens  consumed  his  time  and  prevented 
his  theorizings  from  reaching  maturity.  After 
his  return  home  he  spent  some  years  in  arrang- 
ing these  facts  according  to  the  best  known 
systems  of  classification.  Even  when  this  was 
done  he  hesitated  long  before  arriving  at  the 
most  tentative  conclusions.  Yet  the  saliency  of 
his  ordered  materials  was  such  that  he  began 
to  drift  from  the  moorings  of  traditional  opinion. 
In  this  dissatisfied  state  of  mind  he  chanced 
to  read  for  relaxation  Malthus's  Essay  on  the 
Principle  of  Population.  The  immense  struggle 
for  existence  with  which  it  deals  had  already 
painfully  impressed  Darwin.  Malthus's  main 
argument  was  that  nature  has  self-restraint,  and 
when  life  increases  beyond  the  proper  means 
of  subsistence  competition  ensues,  the  weak  go 
to  the  wall,  and  the  strong  are  established.  It 
instantly  occurred  to  Darwin  that  a  similar 
principle  operated  in  the  organic  world,  result- 
ing in  the  formation  of  new  species,  and  these 
preventive  checks  would  also  account  for 
the  destruction  of  unfavorable  variations.  In 
this  association  between  the  struggle  waged 
by  individual  types  and  the  succession  and 
disappearance  of  species,  we  have  the  key  to 
Darwin's  interpretation  of  evolution.  The 
germinal  idea  of  his  theory  flashed  upon  him 
[14  1 


Charles  Darwin 

with  the  suddenness  of  intuition.  Plato's 
plea  that  such  intuition  is  the  highest  form  of 
reasoning  —  and  such  it  is  since  it  depends  on 
previous  and  thorough  preparation  —  has  sel- 
dom received  better  support. 

Always  cautious  and  critical,  Darwin  was 
still  anxious  to  avoid  precipitate  action.  He 
did  not  commit  his  theory  to  writing  until 
1842,  when  he  prepared  a  brief  abstract  of 
thirty-five  pages,  which  he  expanded  during 
the  summer  of  1844  to  two  hundred  and  thirty 
pages,  and  finally  published  in  1859,  after  an 
interval  of  seventeen  years.  He  was  repeatedly 
admonished  by  his  brother  Erasmus,  Sir  Charles 
Lyell,  and  others,  that  some  one  would  forestall 
him;  but  he  persevered  in  his  reticence,  until 
their  fears  were  realized.  Mr.  Alfred  Russel 
Wallace,  a  young  traveler  and  naturalist,  sent 
him  an  essay  on  The  Tendency  of  Varieties  to 
Depart  Indefinitely  from  the  Original  Type,  which 
Darwin  saw  at  a  glance  contained  the  gist  of 
his  own  theory.  In  the  spring  of  1858  Wallace 
lay  sick  with  fever  at  Ternate  in  the  island  of 
Celebes.  In  lucid  intervals  his  thoughts  re- 
curred to  the  ever-present  problem  of  species; 
and  the  writings  of  Malthus,  which  he  had  read 
twelve  years  before,  suggested  to  him,  as  they 
had  to  Darwin,  the  theory  of  natural  selection. 
As  soon  as  he  was  able,  he  sketched  an  outline 
and  forwarded  it  to  Darwin  by  the  next  mail. 
It  was  a  singularly  clear  and  comprehensive 
fl5l 


Charles  Darwin 

presentment  of  the  hypothesis  now  known  to 
both,  and  he  accompanied  it  with  the  unwit- 
tingly naive  suggestion  that  he  beheved  it  to 
be  entirely  original.  Darwin  was  struck  as 
with  "a  bolt  from  the  blue."  Distracted  by 
domestic  affliction,  and  himself  a  sufferer  from 
precarious  health,  he  wrote  at  once  to  his 
confidant,  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  enclosing  Wallace's 
document  with  the  comment,  "I  never  saw  a 
more  striking  coincidence;  if  Wallace  had  had 
my  manuscript  written  out  in  1842  he  could  not 
have  made  a  better  short  abstract.  ...  So  all 
my  originality,  whatever  it  may  amount  to,  will 
be  smashed,  though  my  book,  if  it  ever  have 
any  value,  will  not  be  deteriorated,  as  all  the 
labor  consists  in  the  application  of  the  theory."^ 
Grave  issues  were  at  stake.  The  merit  of 
enunciating  an  illuminating  principle  was  about 
to  be  assigned.  Any  personal  bickerings  regard- 
ing priority  might  have  engendered  animosity 
such  as  that  which,  in  1846,  threatened  to  arise 
between  Adams  and  Leverrier  with  reference 
to  the  discovery  of  Neptune.  Wallace  had 
anticipated  Darwin  in  writing,  as  Darwin  had 
anticipated  Wallace  in  conceiving  and  amplify- 
ing the  main  features  of  the  principle.  This  was 
an  unfortunate  complication  which  had  in  it 
the  seeds  of  acrimony.  But  it  was  handled  with 
mutual  forbearance  and  consummate  justice. 
There  has  never  been  a  more  chivalrous  rivalry 

1  Darwin' sit/e  and  Letters  (X.  Y.,  1893),  Vol.  I,  p.  473. 
fl6l 


Charles    Darwin 

than  this  which  arose  so  inadvertently  for 
Wallace,  so  unexpectedly  for  Darwin.  The 
conduct  of  the  interested  parties  was  unim- 
peachable, and  reflected  credit  on  them  and 
their  supporters.  Their  papers  were  read  to- 
gether at  a  special  meeting  of  the  Linnsean 
Society  on  July  1,  1858.  The  absent  Wallace 
entirely  acquiesced  in  the  decision  of  the  council, 
which  awarded  the  precedence  to  Darwin.  As 
proof  of  this,  his  letter  to  Mr.  George  Silk  may 
be  quoted:  "I  have  read  the  Origin  of  Species 
through  five  or  six  times,  each  time  with  in- 
creasing admiration.  It  will  live  as  long  as  the 
Principia  of  Newton.  Mr.  Darwin  has  given 
the  world  a  new  science,  and  his  name  should 
in  my  opinion  stand  above  that  of  every  philoso- 
pher of  ancient  or  modern  times."  ^  Fifty 
years  later  he  reiterated  his  earlier  praise  in  a 
memorial  address  he  delivered  on  July  1,  1908, 
and  protested  against  the  honor  which  he 
believed  had  been  too  freelj'^  accorded  to  him. 
*'/  was  then  (as  often  since)  'the  young  man 
in  a  hurry';  he,  the  painstaking  and  patient 
student,  seeking  ever  the  full  demonstration 
of  the  truth  he  had  discovered,  rather  than  to 
achieve  immediate  personal  fame.  ...  It  was 
really  a  singular  piece  of  good  luck  that  gave 
me  any  share  whatever  .  .  .  [or]  allowed  me 
to  come  in,  as  a  very  bad  second,  in  the  truly 
Olympian  race  in  which  all  philosophical  biol- 

1  Wallace's  My  Life,  Vol.  I,  p.  372. 

fl7l 


Ch  arles    Darwin 

ogists  were  more  or  less  actively  engaged."  ^ 
The  force  of  admiration  cannot  go  farther. 
Whatever  doubts  may  exist  as  to  the  justice 
of  the  estimate  —  and  Wallace  would  appear 
to  depreciate  unduly  his  own  share  in  the 
achievement  —  there  can  be  none  as  to  its  gen- 
erosity. No  nobler  example  of  self-abnegation 
adorns  the  history  of  science  or  philosophy. 

Ill 

While  it  is  impossible  within  the  limits  of  a 
single  lecture  to  give  an  extended  exposition 
of  the  Darwinian  theory,  its  main  outline,  and 
the  revolution  it  wrought  in  the  scientific 
world,  can  be  briefly  stated.  Huxley's  in- 
cisive putting  of  the  evolutionary  thesis  has 
no  superior  for  completeness  and  lucidity. 
"All  species  have  been  produced  by  the  develop- 
ment of  varieties  from  common  stocks;  by 
the  conversion  of  these,  first  into  permanent 
races  and  then  into  new  species,  by  the  process 
of  natural  selection,  which  process  is  essentially 
identical  with  that  artificial  selection  by  which 
man  has  originated  the  races  of  domestic 
animals  —  the  struggle  for  existence  taking  the 
place  of  man,  and  exerting,  in  the  case  of 
natural  selection,  that  selective  action  which 
he  performs  in  artificial  selection."  - 

This  theory  involved  an  amazing  transition, 

^  Fifty  Years  of  Darwinism,  pp.  19-20. 

2  Huxley's  Collected  Essays:  Darwiniana,  p.  71. 

[181 


Charles   D  arioin 

which  was  indicated  both  by  Darwin's  solemn 
declaration  concerning  it  and  the  controversies 
it  aroused.  He  had  been  at  infinite  pains, 
by  repeated  tests  and  experiments,  to  verify 
every  conclusion  he  advanced.  He  admitted 
that  much  was  obscure  and  would  long  remain 
obscure,  but  his  statement  on  the  issue  was 
couched  in  terms  that  preclude  any  misgiving 
as  to  the  depth  and  sincerity  of  his  conviction. 
"I  can  entertain  no  doubt,  after  the  most 
deliberate  and  dispassionate  judgment  of  which 
I  am  capable,  that  the  view  which  most  natu- 
ralists until  recently  entertained,  and  which 
I  formerly  entertained  —  namely,  that  each 
species  has  been  independently  created  —  is 
erroneous.  I  am  fully  convinced  that  species 
are  not  immutable;  but  that  those  belonging 
to  what  are  called  the  same  genera  are  lineal 
descendants  of  some  other  and  generally 
extinct  species,  in  the  same  manner  as  the 
acknowledged  varieties  of  any  one  species 
are  the  descendants  of  that  species.  Further- 
more, I  am  convinced  that  natural  selection 
has  been  the  most  important,  but  not  the 
exclusive,  means  of  modification."  ' 

Darwin  held  tliat  in  nature  there  was  an 
inherent  and  self-acting  power  which  produced 
the  absence  of  trees  in  Southern  Continental 
America,  the  adaptation  of  animals  to  their 
environment,  and  also  that  of  the  smaller  species 

'  Introduction  to  Origin  of  Species  (London,  190£),  p.  6. 

fl9l 


Charles  Darwin 

abounding  in  the  regions  formerly  occupied  by 
their  huge  and  extinct  ancestors.  Thus  he  ac- 
counted for  differences  in  breed,  and  the  coming 
in  of  the  new  and  the  going  out  of  the  old  types, 
which  had  hitherto  been  the  insoluble  problems 
of  animate  creation.  The  central  idea  of  the 
Origin  of  Species  is  that  every  form  of  organic 
life,  high  and  low,  is  derived  from  a  very  small 
number  of  original  forms.  Every  variety  of 
vegetable  and  animal  organism,  now  extant, 
or  having  formerly  existed,  owes  its  origin  to 
the  slow  and  gradual  operation  of  the  modifying 
injfluences  of  local  and  special  causes  trans- 
mitted by  heredity.  Whatever  forms  were 
best  suited  to  any  particular  time  and  locality 
were  selected  and  adapted  by  the  working  of 
natural  laws.  Many  illustrations  of  the  work- 
ing of  these  laws  are  to  be  found  in  Darwin's 
pages.  His  patience  and  care  in  arranging 
and  explaining  with  exactitude  a  multitude  of 
facts,  his  candor  in  modifying  and  retracting 
hasty  or  incorrect  inferences,  his  unfailing  in- 
tellectual poise  when  surrounded  by  difficulties, 
were  marks  in  him  of  the  true  scientific  spirit, 
"the  spirit  in  which  to  acquire  lessons  from 
nature,  whether  in  the  world  of  mind  or  in 
the  world  of  matter."  * 

The  reception  which  Darwin's  first  volume 
received  from  the  scientific  community  has 
been  mentioned.     It  is  now  in  place  to  speak 

^  Cf.  John  Fiske's  Darwinism  and  Other  Essays,  p.  35. 
[201 


Charles  Darwin 

in  some  detail  of  the  hostility  it  excited,  how 
this  arose,  and  what  it  contained.  The  preva- 
lent views  of  creation  were  based  either  on 
Moses  or  on  Milton.  If  an  orthodox  naturalist 
of  the  pre-Darwinian  epoch  had  been  required 
to  give  a  satisfactory  account  of  the  immense 
number  of  varieties  of  organic  life,  probably 
he  would  have  taken  refuge  in  the  doctrine 
of  immediate  creation  as  authorized  by  the 
common  interpretation  of  the  Book  of  Genesis. 
Even  those  who  admitted  evolution  as  a 
possible  alternative,  as  did  the  Huttonian 
School,  were  completely  in  the  dark  concern- 
ing the  modus  operandi.  The  intelligent  people 
who  were  not  scientists  had  no  concern  with 
these  diflBculties.  They  did  not  even  know 
of  their  existence.  For  them  the  conceptions 
of  the  past  ages  as  embodied  in  Milton's  poetry 
were  all-sufficient,  and  the  adaptation  of  the 
creation  epic  in  Paradise  Lost  gave  permanence 
and  dignity  to  the  "revealed"  truth  of  Hebrew 
tradition.  Curiously  enough  this  was  the 
only  poetry  Darwin  read  while  on  the  Beagle. 
At  the  moment  when  he  first  questioned  the 
doctrine  of  direct  creation,  the  familiar  lines 
in  which  it  is  so  tersely  described  were  before 
his   eye : 

"The  earth  obey'd,  and  straight 
Op'ning  her  fertile  womb  teem'd  at  a  birth 
Innumerous  hving  creatures,  perfect  forms, 
Limb'd  and  full  grown.     Out  of  the  ground  up  rose 
As  from  his  lair  the  wild  beast,  where  he  wonns 
[211 


Charles  Darwin 

In  forest  wild,  in  thicket,  brake,  or  den; 
Among  the  trees  in  pairs  they  rose,  they  walk'd; 
The  cattle  in  the  fields  and  meadows  green: 
Those  rare  and  solitary,  these  in  flocks 
Pasturing  at  once,  and  in  broad  herds  upsprung. 
The  grassy  clods  now  calved;  now  half  appear'd 
The  tawny  lion,  pawing  to  get  free 
His  hinder  parts,  then  springs  as  broke  from  bonds. 
And  rampant  shakes  his  brinded  mane."  ^ 

An  indication  of  the  hold  this  glowing  im- 
agery had  on  the  imagination  of  all  classes  is 
found  in  the  preference  of  Professor  Agassiz, 
the  foremost  American  scientist  of  his  day,  for 
Milton's  presentation  over  Darwin's  theory, 
and  his  assertion  that  not  only  was  each  species 
specially  created,  but  created  in  the  proportions 
and  the  locality  in  which  it  was  found  to  exist. 
Old  controversies  were  renewed  and  new  ones 
generated  around  these  opposing  theories. 
The  significance  of  Darwin's  contribution 
aroused  a  regrettable  acerbity.  The  insularity 
of  English  life  had  conserved  its  prejudices, 
and  these  in  turn  gave  birth  to  some  pronounced 
tendencies  in  radical  directions.  The  reaction- 
aries practically  controlled  science  and  the- 
ology; anything  that  savored  of  liberalism 
was  strongly  denounced,  and  its  manifestoes 
were  either  repudiated  or  treated  with  ridicule 
and  misrepresentation.  The  Universities  were 
under  the  sway  of  the  Anglican  Church,  which 
was  then  well  on  into  the  first  phase  of  the 

»  Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  Book  VII,  lines  453-466. 
[22] 


Charles  Darwin 

Oxford  Movement;  scientific  professorships 
were  held  by  clergymen,  and  Cuvier's  theories 
of  "world  catastrophes"  and  the  immutability 
of  species  were  cordially  received  because 
they  afforded  a  supposedly  scientific  basis 
for  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  Flood.  Dr. 
Buckland,  a  prominent  and  energetic  scientist 
of  the  clerical  order,  uncompromisingly  asserted 
that  all  scientific  teaching  must  be  forever 
subordinated  to  the  cosmogony  of  Genesis. 

In  the  heat  of  fervid  disputation  men  forgot 
that  Darwin  was  a  specialist  in  his  own  depart- 
ment of  science;  they  ignored  the  expert  skill 
and  tempered  judgment  of  his  discussion;  and 
they  did  not  allow  for  his  own  admission  that 
many  things  would  long  remain  obscure.  His 
assumptions  were  as  well  known  to  him  as 
they  were  to  his  critics.  He  was  fully  aware 
that  he  began  with  them  and  depended  on 
them.  If  he  were  allowed  to  premise  a  world 
and  in  it  a  first  or  a  few  created  forms,  in  a 
suitable  environment,  and  with  certain  capaci- 
ties, he  would  show  how  that  world  was  tenanted 
with  living  beings.  These  were  tremendous 
assumptions,  and  his  deductions  from  them 
aroused  a  storm  which  at  one  time  rose  so 
high  that  it  seemed  as  though  his  voice  would 
be  lost  in  the  clamor  and  he  would  not  obtain 
a  hearing.  The  opposition  was  purer  in  motive 
than  in  practise.  Many  scientists  and  the- 
ologians were  chiefly  anxious  to  conserve 
[23  1 


Charles    Darwin 

the  spiritual  principles  which  for  them  were 
inextricably  woven  into  the  dogma  of  direct 
creation.  Natural  Selection  appalled  them  as 
a  dangerous  novelty  which  threatened  to  sub- 
stitute mere  physical  force  for  the  operative 
and  beneficent  wisdom  of  God.  Sentiment 
lent  its  powerful  aid  to  their  forebodings.  It 
was  exceedingly  hard  for  them  to  throw  away 
the  old  wine-skins,  and  the  strength  of  their 
religious  convictions  was  against  such  a  stroke 
of  temerity. 

Nor  can  it  be  said  that  their  protestations 
were  groundless.  Questions  that  demanded 
the  most  careful  handling  suffered  from  the 
recklessness  of  those  materialistic  evolutionists 
who  entered  into  the  new  teaching  with 
such  ardor  that  they  overran  all  boundaries. 
Haeckel,  Biichner,  and  Clodd  were  the  promi- 
nent representatives  of  this  school.  They  were 
unwilling  to  admit  that  evolution  could  be 
thwarted  by  ultimate  origins;  it  was  so  abso- 
lute that  if  it  did  not  account  for  everything  it 
accounted  for  nothing.  Granted  "a  fortuitous 
concourse  of  atoms"  as  a  beginning,  the  theory 
needed  no  assistance  and  left  no  gaps  between 
those  atoms  and  man  himself.  The  idea  of  a 
directing  Creator  was  a  figment  of  the  brain, 
and  matter  in  motion  the  all  in  all.  This  un- 
warranted extension  of  Darwinism  was  really  a 
decaying  philosophy  which  used  the  evolution 
theory  as  a  mold  in  which  to  recast  its  worn-out 
[24] 


Charles    Darwin 

conceptions.  Darwin  lent  no  direct  encourage- 
ment to  such  spurious  notions,  and  it  would 
be  unjust  to  charge  their  raw  rationalizing  and 
philosophical  improprieties  against  him.  Every 
notable  man  has  to  run  the  risk  incurred  by  the 
vagaries  of  his  disciples,  and  to  them  must  be 
assigned  much  of  the  persistency  of  the  later 
opposition  to  Darwin's  theory.  Materialistic 
evolutionists  felt  confident  that  by  reducing 
everything  to  their  mechanical  system  they 
could  eventually  conduct  the  Deity  to  the  verge, 
and,  in  the  language  of  Comte,  "bow  Him  out 
with  thanks  for  His  provisional  services." 

Another  source  of  confusion  was  that  which 
arose  out  of  the  use  of  terms,  a  confusion  fre- 
quently more  mischievous  than  actual  error. 
The  controversialists  failed  to  remember  that 
terms  like  "force"  and  "cause"  were  employed 
metaphorically  and  not  metaphysically  —  that 
is  to  say,  with  no  direct  reference  to  ultimate 
origins.  All  truth  is  relative,  and  so  vital  a 
theory  as  evolution  was  found  to  have  many 
far-reaching  consequences ;  but  specifically  con- 
sidered, it  is  no  more  than  a  description  of  the 
Creator's  methods  of  creation.  "Material 
phenomena,  so  called,  are  not  material  at  all; 
they  are  the  expressions  for  complicated  psychi- 
cal states."  Extremists  on  both  sides  neglected 
these  important  qualifications,  while  some  were 
malicious  and  kindled  their  fires  not  so  much  for 
the  radiance  as  for  the  smoke  they  would  diffuse. 
[25] 


Charles    Darwin 

It  is  unnecessary  to  dwell  at  length  upon 
Nietzsche's  doctrine  of  the  Superman  —  a 
wild  and  atrocious  alienation  of  the  Darwinian 
hypothesis  which  subverts  the  moral  order  — 
for  we  do  not  achieve  true  moral  progress  by 
surrendering  to  a  struggle  for  existence,  but  by 
combating  and  finally  abolishing  it.  Nietzsche 
was  a  severe  critic  of  Darwin,  and  he  argued 
against  him  on  behalf  of  "an  inner  creative 
will  in  living  organisms  which  ultimately 
makes  environment  and  natural  conditions 
subservient  and  subject."  ^  In  this  sense 
the  German  philosopher  is  on  "the  side  of  the 
angels";  but  his  bitter  attack  on  Christian 
morality,  and  his  anxiety  to  produce  a  society 
by  means  of  an  unregulated  struggle  for  power 
in  which  might  is  the  only  right,  constituted 
him  a  prophet  who  was  born  thousands  of 
years  behind  his  time.  His  favorite  conception 
of  life,  in  Beyond  Good  and  Evil  (p.  226),  is 
really  a  plea  for  rampant  cruelty,  and  his 
favorite  moral  conception  is  that  of  a  filibuster. 

In  the  theological  realm  writers  emphasized 
the  miraculous  interferences  manifested  in 
direct  creation,  and  clung  tenaciously  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  immutability  of  species.  A 
universe  produced  and  maintained  by  natural 
laws  was  for  them  hard  of  belief.  Guidance 
and  purpose  seemed  to  have  disappeared  from 
the  creative  scheme.     The  Hebrew  Scriptures 

1  A.  M.  Ludovici's,  Nietzsche,  Hia  Life  and  Works,  pp.  09-70. 
[26] 


Charles    Darwin 

fostered  credence  in  a  special  creative  provi- 
dence, and  Christian  people  generally  were 
wont  to  regard  unusual  expressions  of  divine 
power  as  alone  worthy  of  God.  If  no  such 
interruptions  occurred,  they  hastily  assumed 
that  the  scheme  must  be  self-originating,  self- 
sustained,  and  moving  blindly  to  no  end.  But 
to  presume  that  whatever  happens  in  natural 
order  is  to  no  purpose  is  not  reasonable.  It 
has  been  pertinently  observed  that  *'if  an 
event  represents  a  divine  purpose,  it  is  as  truly 
purposeful  when  realized  through  natural  means 
as  it  would  be  if  produced  by  fiat."^  To  say 
God  created  everything,  and  to  leave  the  matter 
there,  counts  for  nothing,  save  as  evidence  of 
a  desire  to  deprecate  inquiry  and  fortify  tra- 
dition in  a  monastic  seclusion  of  the  mind. 
Intellectual  peace  purchased  at  the  price  of 
strangled  thought  is  a  delusion  and  a  snare. 
No  one  can  for  long  escape  the  vibrant  move- 
ments of  the  times  by  refusing  to  deal  with  the 
inevitable  results  of  advancing  knowledge.  If 
he  can,  and  if  he  does,  it  is  only  the  postpone- 
ment of  a  battle  which  becomes  the  more 
disastrous  for  him  the  longer  it  is  delayed. 
The  sole  function  of  science  is  to  address  itself 
to  the  questions  springing  out  of  the  manifold 
activities  of  tlie  visible  universe ;  and  if,  in  its 
attempts  to  answer  these,  there  is  a  breach  of 
intellectual   harmony,   it   can   be   healed   only 

^  B.  P.  Bowne's  Immanence  of  God,  Chap.  I,  p.  13. 

[271 


Charles    Darwin 

by  a  steady  conformity  to  the  authority  of 
truth,  and  an  unwavering  faith  in  its  ultimate 
right  to  prevail.  N©r  should  it  be  forgotten 
that  evolution,  natural  selection,  and  kindred 
terms  describe  a  process  for  which  they  do 
not  and  cannot  account.  As  a  mode  of  opera- 
tion that  process  is  the  best  yet  disclosed; 
but  as  a  doctrine  of  mechanical  causality  it  is 
altogether  impossible. 

The  late  Professor  Borden  P.  Bowne  con- 
fronted the  issue  in  a  manner  at  once  coura- 
geous and  scholarly.  From  the  first,  he  took 
the  position  that  evolution  as  a  theory  of  causes 
is  worthless,  as  a  theory  of  the  order  of  progress 
it  is  harmless.  He  had  profound  respect  for 
Darwin  as  a  scientist,  but  he  carefully  distin- 
guished between  the  description  and  formula- 
tion which  science  gives  and  the  causal  and 
purposive  interpretation  which  philosophy  and 
theology  seek.  When  this  distinction  is  observed 
—  and  it  is  the  distinction  between  a  process  on 
the  one  hand  and  its  origin  and  aim  on  the 
other  —  confusion  ceases  to  exist.  Darwin  had 
no  marked  gifts  for  metaphysics.  His  mind 
was  essentially  analytical,  and  tended  toward 
the  minute  observation  of  separate  organisms. 
Beyond  framing  hypotheses  for  facts  he  did 
not  care  to  go,  considering  it  outside  his  prov- 
ince to  speculate  on  the  origin  of  life  or  matter. 
He  refused  to  venture  into  regions  requiring 
methods  of  investigation  with  which  he  was 
[281 


Charles    Darwin 

not  familiar.  Fully  aware  of  the  splendor 
of  this  theory  of  life  which  he  advocated,  a 
splendor  that  came  into  mental  view  during 
moments  of  calm  contemplation,  he  expatiated 
on  the  several  powers  of  sentient  existence, 
and  how  these  had  been  originally  breathed 
by  the  Creator  into  a  few  forms,  or  even  only 
one.  While  the  planet  had  pursued  its  ageless 
cycles,  according  to  the  fixed  law  of  gravity, 
endless  species  of  beauty  and  wonder  were 
continually  being  evolved  from  so  simple  a 
beginning.  Lyell,  so  far  back  as  1836,  writing 
to  his  friend,  Sir  John  Herschel,  who  shared 
his  belief  in  the  derivation  of  new  species  from 
preexisting  ones  by  the  action  of  secondary 
causes,  asserted  that  the  conception  appealed 
to  him  as  "the  grandest  he  had  ever  known 
so  far  as  regards  the  attributes  of  the  Presiding 
Mind."  1 

There  is  nothing  in  evolution  derogatory 
to  the  Eternal  Being  or  His  designs  when 
thus  considered.  On  the  contrary,  there  is 
much  to  be  gained  by  a  frank  admission  of 
the  majesty  and  lawfulness  contained  in  this 
exposition  of  the  Creator's  handiwork.  And 
when  it  is  clearly  understood,  and  the*  fatal 
obstacles  of  ignorance  and  misapprehension 
have  been  removed,  it  will  contribute  increas- 
ingly to  the  honor  and  glory  of  God.  Modern 
science  has  carried  the  idea  of  uniformity  into 

^  Lyell's  Lije  and  Letters,  Vol.  I,  p.  468. 
[29] 


Charles    Darwin 

every  realm  of  the  universe.  In  this  sense 
it  is  the  special  illumination  of  our  age,  and 
after  fifty  years  the  mists  of  misunderstand- 
ing are  being  scattered,  while  the  proportion 
and  value  of  conflicting  claims  are  more  quickly 
discerned.  WTien  Weismann  said  that  the 
wonderful  results  of  evolution  were  brought 
about  as  though  they  were  guided  by  a  supreme 
intelligence,  he  spoke  better  than  he  knew. 
Theologians  and  men  of  faith  need  no  longer 
be  afraid  of  science.  They  can  accept  the 
reign  of  law,  and  they  can  rejoice  in  it.  It  is 
confirmatory  in  many  ways  of  the  greatest 
and  most  distinctively  Christian  ideas  they  can 
entertain  concerning  the  workmanship  of  the 

All-wise  God. 

IV 

When  Darwin  published  the  Origin,  he  had 
already  accomplished  enough  original  research 
to  place  him  in  the  front  rank  of  scientific 
investigators.  The  equally  well-known  volume 
on  The  Descent  of  Man  was  not  issued  until 
1871,  though  the  interval  between  the  two 
treatises  was  filled  with  prodigious  labor.  He 
had  purposely  refrained  from  discussing  the 
place  man  held  in  his  system,  because  he  was 
anxious  to  avoid  needless  friction,  and  felt  that 
nothing  was  to  be  gained  from  an  unsym- 
pathetic disregard  for  the  religious  suscepti- 
bilities involved  in  the  theme.  He  was  the 
most  courteous  of  men,  and  he  showed  it  by 
[30] 


Charles    Darwin 

his  eflforts  to  avoid  any  outrage  of  these  devout 
feelings.  At  the  same  time  he  was  equally 
honest,  and  in  the  Origin  he  had  hinted  that 
light  would  be  thrown  on  the  beginnings  and 
history  of  man.  But  he  believed  that  it  was 
useless  and  injurious  to  parade  his  convictions 
prematurely  or  without  offering  convincing 
evidence  for  their  support.  The  Descent  of  Man 
excited  more  interest  and  less  opposition  than 
the  Origin  of  Species,  thereby  justifying  the 
wisdom  of  the  delay.  His  general  position  may 
be  stated  as  follows :  he  could  not  admit  of  any 
break  between  man  and  the  rest  of  animal 
creation,  for  the  physical  affinities  of  the  human 
race  with  lower  forms  of  like  structure  were  so 
marked  that  they  compelled  him  to  push  his 
evolutionary  theory  to  its  logical  conclusion. 

It  is  interesting  to  note,  however,  that 
Wallace,  in  his  explanation  of  the  origin  of 
man,  introduces  other  important  factors  into 
the  process.  He  does  not  deny  the  devel- 
opment of  man's  moral  and  intellectual  fac- 
ulties from  animals,  yet  he  affirms  that  they 
have  not  been  evolved  by  natural  selection. 
Their  operating  cause  cannot  be  discovered  in 
the  realm  of  natural  law,  but  are  to  be  found 
in  the  unseen  kingdom  of  spirit.  Three  stages, 
containing  much  besides  the  human,  exist  in 
the  unfolding  of  organic  life.  At  each  of  these 
stages  some  superior  power  must  necessarily 
have  entered  into  action.  The  first  marks 
[311 


Charles    Darwin 

the  change  from  the  inorganic  to  the  organic, 
when  the  earhest  vegetable  cell  was  a  new 
thing  in  the  world.  The  second  is  still  more 
marvelous,  for  it  heralds  the  dawn  of  con- 
sciousness —  the  fundamental  distinction  be- 
tween the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms.  The 
third  is  the  appearance  in  man  of  those  noble 
faculties  and  primary  moral  characteristics 
which  raise  him  forever  above  the  brute  and 
open  up  possibilities  of  almost  infinite  advance- 
ment. These  higher  powers  could  not  have 
been  developed  by  the  same  laws  which  ruled 
the  organic  world.  They  are  so  distinctively 
different  in  quality  from  purely  biological 
results  that  they  suggest  a  world  of  spirit  to 
which  the  world  of  matter  is  altogether  sub- 
ordinate. Conscious  life  is  a  progressive  mani- 
festation dependent  upon  different  forms  of 
spirit  influx.  If  this  ascensive  scale  of  reason- 
ing is  valid,  evolution  is  homocentric,  and 
not  only  does  it  not  degrade  man,  but  man 
confers  purpose  and  honor  on  evolution.  He 
is  the  crown  of  its  ageless  and  infinite  processes, 
and  he  is  equipped  with  spiritual  powers  that 
make  him  the  one  supernormal  fact  before  which 
ordinary  explanations  are  inadequate.  He 
reflects  the  moral  nature  of  the  Deity  and  dis- 
closes the  moral  meaning  of  the  universe, 
while  his  destiny  gives  worth  to  the  drama  of 
existence  as  enacted  on  this  planet. 

The  only  way  of  escape  from  these  conclu- 
[32] 


Charles    Darwin 

sions  is  by  disregarding  the  evidence  adduced, 
and  defining  the  whole  creation  as  an  aimless 
process,  which  has  no  conscious  reason  for  its 
existence,  indicates  no  aim,  and  simply  moves 
in  blind  obedience  to  inexorable  and  soulless 
law.  Tliis  way  is  barred  by  the  truth,  now 
widely  recognized,  that  mechanism  cannot 
produce  mind,  nor  can  matter  be  ultimately 
permuted  into  thought.  Lord  Kelvin,  the 
greatest  philosophical  scientist  of  the  closing 
days  of  the  last  century,  wrote  to  the  London 
Times:  "Scientific  thought  is  compelled  to 
accept  the  idea  of  Creative  Power.  Forty 
years  ago  I  asked  Liebig,  walking  somewhere 
in  the  country,  if  he  believed  that  the  grass 
and  the  flowers  which  he  saw  around  us  grew 
by  mere  chemical  forces.  He  answered,  *No, 
no  more  than  I  could  believe  that  the  books 
of  botany  describing  them  could  grow  by  mere 
chemical  forces.'  Every  action  of  human  free 
will  is  a  miracle  to  physical  and  chemical  and 
mathematical  science."  ^ 

The  theistic  conception  of  the  universe  has 
been  held  by  many  scientists,  some  of  whom 
deemed  it  not  only  morally  desirable  but 
philosophically  and  scientifically  necessary. 
Their  change  of  attitude  is  indicated  by  the 
statement  of  Lord  Kelvin  that  behind  all 
phenomena  there  is  the  power  of  a  Supreme 
Intelligence.     The  knowledge  of  God  can  be 

*  Cf .  Bowne's  Immanence  of  God,  Chap.  I,  p.  21. 
[33] 


Charles    Darwin 

obtained  by  an  inductive  process  of  reasoning 
from  known  data,  and  the  revelation  of  His 
character  must  then  be  discerned  in  the  person 
and  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ.  Such  is  the 
general  course  indicated  by  theological  thinkers 
like  Martineau,  Fairbairn,  Walker,  and  Gwat- 
kin.  According  to  them  we  can  proceed  from 
philosophy  through  metaphysics  to  a  broad 
and  suflScient  theological  basis.  The  nat- 
ural phenomena  science  discerns,  philosophy 
unifies  under  the  governance  of  certain  prin- 
ciples; metaphysics  weaves  those  principles 
into  a  higher  unity,  and  Christian  theology 
concentrates  and  clothes  them  in  the  doctrine 
of  the  Divine  Fatherhood.  Professor  Henry 
Jones  of  the  University  of  Glasgow  has  appo- 
sitely said  that  "the  scientific  investigator 
who,  like  Mr.  Tyndall,  so  far  forgets  the  limi- 
tations of  his  province  as  to  use  his  natural 
data  as  premises  for  religious  or  irreligious 
conclusions,  is  as  illogical  as  the  popular 
preacher,  who  attacks  scientific  conclusions 
because  they  are  not  consistent  with  his  theo- 
logical presuppositions.  Looking  only  at  their 
primary  aspect,  we  cannot  say  that  religious 
presuppositions  and  the  scientific  interpreta- 
tion of  facts  are  either  consistent  or  inconsistent; 
they  are  simply  different.  Their  harmony  or 
discord  can  come  only  when  the  higher  princi- 
ples of  philosophy  have  been  fully  developed, 
and  when  the  departmental  ideas  of  the  various 
[34] 


Charles    Darwin 

sciences  are  organized  into  a  view  of  the  world 
as  a  whole."'  This  task  has  still  to  be  accom- 
plished; the  forces  from  below  and  above  have 
yet  to  meet;  and  when  they  do,  it  will  be  as 
friends  and  not  as  foes.  Moralists  and  scientists 
will  not  always  treat  each  other  with  scorn  and 
misunderstanding.  A  more  comprehensive 
view  of  the  movements  of  human  knowledge 
will  show  that  not  one  of  these  has  labored  in 
vain.  The  growth  of  that  knowledge  is  toward 
unity  by  the  perception  of  differences,  differ- 
ences which,  duly  considered,  constitute  a  final 
harmony.  The  poets  have  seen  this.  Their 
prescience  rebukes  the  disputes  which  have 
hindered  its  coming;  and  though  their  dreams 
may  not  be  admitted  by  hard-and-fast  rational- 
ists, they  are  a  prophecy  and  an  inspiration. 
Those  who  would  purify  themselves  by  observ- 
ing and  thinking  upon  the  ways  of  Deity  must 
accept  the  lessons  science  has  to  teach,  remem- 
bering that  its  ultimate  movement  is  up  and 
not  down,  forward  toward  idealism,  and  not 
backward  to  mere  beginnings.  The  theistic 
view  can  have  no  quarrel  with  the  proven 
results  of  scientific  research;  it  can  have  no 
alliance  with  the  reactionary  obscurantism 
which  opposes  such  results  without  reason  or 
proof  to  the  contrary. 

Speculative    reflections    on    the    course     of 
nature  have  shaken  the  convictions  of  many 

1  Browning  as  a  Philosophical  and  Religious  Teacher,  p.  36. 
[35] 


Charles    Darwin 

in  regard  to  the  benevolence  therein  displayed. 
The  cosmic  process  is  so  unhmited,  the  organic 
world  so  mysterious  and  replete  with  pain  and 
death,  that  the  older  theistic  arguments  have 
failed  to  deal  with  the  situation.  They  can- 
not cope  with  the  groaning  and  travailing  of 
creation.  In  this  intellectual  chaos  man  finds 
himself  endowed  with  certain  capacities  which 
can  eventually  win  the  mastery  over  death, 
and  he  sees  in  Christ  one  who  actually  was 
its  Master,  whose  very  being  was  the  incarna- 
tion of  truth,  whose  claims  have  been  sup- 
ported by  His  achievements.  He  stands  forth 
in  time,  a  solitary  figure,  the  conscious  regen- 
erator and  representative  of  a  new  humanity, 
the  redeemer,  whose  person  was  the  source  of 
immortality,  whose  teaching  transfigured  the 
life  that  now  is  and  revealed  that  which  is  to 
come.  He  bade  all  who  yearn  for  these  con- 
summations to  come  unto  Him.  He  expressed 
the  character  of  the  otherwise  unknown  Deity 
and  the  potentialities  of  His  offspring.  This 
gospel  of  God  as  the  universal  Parent,  who 
made  heaven  and  earth,  who,  while  immanent 
in  all  that  is,  is  yet  transcendent,  who  is  soul 
and  circumference  of  the  whole,  has  changed 
the  visible  world  into  a  pellucid  garment  behind 
which  throbs  the  life  and  love  divine.  In  Him 
the  creation  is  spirit- woven;  thought  and  sense, 
spirit  and  matter,  are  reconciled.  Thus  believ- 
ing, as  Christ  has  taught  us,  God  is  no  longer  a 
[36] 


Charles    Darwin 

hidden  God,  nor  yet  a  vague  and  shadowy  im- 
personality encompassing  the  infinitudes.  He 
is  seen,  as  Archbishop  Fenelon  said,  "in  every- 
thing, and  everything  in  Him;  all  that  exists, 
existing  only  by  the  communication  of  His 
exhaustless  being;  all  that  has  intelligence 
having  it  only  by  derivation  from  His  sovereign 
reason;  all  that  acts,  acting  only  from  the 
impulse  of  His  supreme  activity."  ^  In  this 
faith  we  can  await  with  confidence  the  time 
when  the  region  of  a  true  religion  will  include 
the  interpretations  of  a  complete  science. 
There  have  been  and  there  are  periods  of 
struggle  and  sacrifice;  and  the  sufferings  these 
involved  have  shaken  many  hearts.  Without 
denying  their  reality  or  extent,  it  is  possible 
to  exaggerate  them,  and  Wallace  went  so  far  as 
to  argue  at  some  length  that  the  popular  con- 
ception of  pain  and  misery  in  the  animal  world 
is  the  reverse  of  the  truth.  The  entire  scheme 
accomplishes  the  maximum  of  life  and  of  life's 
equipments  with  the  minimum  of  pain  and 
misery.  Indeed,  it  would  be  difficult,  according 
to  him,  to  imagine  a  system  by  which  a  greater 
balance  of  happiness  could  have  been  secured.^ 
We  can  leave  the  apportionment  of  pain  and 
joy  in  creation  to  a  future  assignment.  As 
for  progress  itself,  we  know  it  is  based  on  the 
law  of  sacrifice;    everywhere  and  always  the 

'  Cf.  Illingworth's  Divine  Immanence,  p.  24. 
^  Wallace's  Darwinixm,  p.  40. 
[371 


Charles    Darwin 

two  are  coextensive.  Suffering  among  civi- 
lized peoples  is  an  element  which  we  try  to 
banish  yet  we  are  not  blind  to  its  educative 
uses.  Man's  immortality  and  perfectibility 
beckon  us  forward  despite  the  cost,  because 
in  them  the  spiritual  secret  of  the  entire  uni- 
verse is  revealed.  And  what  is  true  in  religion 
is  also  true  in  ethics.  Justice,  mercy,  and 
charity  have  been  strengthened  by  their  con- 
flict with  the  evils  they  oppose  and  destroy, 
and  the  history  of  these  virtues  signifies  for 
them  a  higher  and  more  permanent  rule  in 
the  future  of  the  race. 


Throughout  life  Darwin  was  subject  to  \'iolent 
paroxysms  of  pain,  which  often  occasioned  great 
alarm  to  his  friends.  He  was  never  able  to  work 
consecutively  for  more  than  twenty  minutes 
without  interruption  from  these  infirmities. 
The  extent  of  his  afllictions  was  never  kno^vTi 
to  any  save  his  faithful  and  devoted  wife,  who 
gave  her  entire  time  and  strength  to  the  care 
of  his  health,  and  the  beautiful  correspondence 
of  their  domestic  life  was  the  explanation  of 
much  he  was  able  to  accomplish.  He  could 
have  been  the  center  of  social  life  among  all 
ranks;  but  he  was  seldom  seen  beyond  his 
own  home  at  Down,  for  he  was  never  sure  of 
freedom  from  one  of  these  sudden  visitations. 
They  so  enfeebled  him  that  even  a  brief  journey 
[38] 


Charles    Darwin 

to  London  was  exhausting.  Burdened  with  ex- 
traordinary diflBculties,  he  achieved  his  results 
by  the  exercise  of  the  sternest  resolution. 
Every  moment  he  could  gain  was  spent  in 
methodical  and  laborious  studies,  and  the  list 
of  his  various  publications  testifies  to  this 
unremitting  energy.  His  modesty  was  almost 
a  weakness;  and  when  he  confessed,  with  touch- 
ing simplicity,  that  he  believed  he  had  acted 
rightly  in  steadily  following  and  devoting  him- 
self to  science,  those  who  revered  him  knew 
not  which  to  admire  the  more,  his  great  gifts 
or  his  incurable  humility.  He  was  fortunate 
in  his  friendships.  The  names  of  Wallace, 
Hooker,  Scrope,  and  Lyell  are  associated  with 
his  fame;  and  the  really  impressive  worth  of 
these  men  was  not  so  much  their  intellectual 
greatness  as  the  grandeur  of  character, 
the  unexampled  forbearance,  and  the  mutual 
assistance  which  distinguished  them  as  coad- 
jutors in  a  notable  cause.  Some  votaries  of 
science  have  shown  themselves  disastrously 
prejudiced  and  jealous;  they  have  been  more 
anxious  for  the  priority  of  their  personal  claims 
than  for  the  purity  of  their  motive  or  the 
progress  of  knowledge.  But  this  band  of  giants 
dwelt  in  a  fellowship  marred  by  no  regrettable 
incidents,  and  strove  toward  tlie  attainment  of 
a  great  ideal,  hand  in  hand  and  conjoined  in 
heart,  in  honor  preferring  one  another. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  effect  of  Darwin's 
[39] 


Charles    Darwin 

inquiries  on  his  personal  religious  life.  As  a 
boy  he  was  very  susceptible  to  spiritual  im- 
pressions, and  after  he  began  his  scientific 
career  he  was  still  a  Theist,  though  gravely  per- 
plexed by  the  pain  incident  to  animal  existence. 
When  he  published  the  Origin  he  still  believed 
in  a  personal  God,  and  considered  that  the 
grand  and  wondrous  universe,  with  our  con- 
scious selves,  was  the  chief  argument  for  such 
a  faith.  Later  in  life  he  stated  that  the  theory 
of  evolution  was  quite  compatible  with  belief 
in  that  God,  but  added  that  different  persons 
have  different  definitions  of  what  they  mean  by 
God.  His  confessions  were  never  meant  for 
the  public  eye.  He  felt  strongly  that  a  man's 
religion  is  a  matter  concerning  himself  alone. 
Yet  the  fluctuations  of  his  religious  moods 
are  now  public  property,  and  they  show  that 
in  the  extremes  of  doubt  he  was  of  an  agnostic 
tendency,  but  never  an  atheist  in  the  sense  of 
denying  a  Supreme  Being.  In  the  autobiog- 
raphy he  wrote  for  his  family,  occurs  a  passage 
describing  his  solitariness  in  a  Brazilian  forest, 
his  spirit  resurgent  with  the  higher  feelings  of 
wonder,  almost  worship  which  elevate  the 
mind.  "Now,"  he  continues,  "the  grandest 
scenes  would  not  cause  any  such  convictions 
to  arise  in  me.  It  may  be  truly  said  that  I  am 
like  a  man  wlio  has  become  color-blind,  and 
the  universal  belief  by  men  in  the  existence  of 
redness  makes  my  loss  of  perception  of  not  the 
[40] 


Charles    Darwin 

least  value  as  evidence."^  If  Schleiermacher 
is  correct  in  stating  that  the  home  of  religion 
is  in  the  emotional  nature  of  man,  there  may 
here  be  a  better  explanation  than  has  been 
surmised  for  the  waning  of  religious  faith  and 
sentiment  in  Darwin.  His  aesthetic  tastes 
and  propensities  were  atrophied  by  reason  of 
his  absorption  in  the  study  of  the  laws  of 
nature.  Until  he  was  thirty  years  of  age  the 
poetry  of  Milton,  Gray,  Wordsworth,  Coleridge, 
and  Shelley  gave  him  pleasure.  He  read  the 
historical  plays  of  Shakespeare  with  delight, 
and  music  and  art  were  also  sources  of  recrea- 
tion. But  in  later  life  they  nauseated  him, 
and  he  secured  a  temporary  respite  from  his 
toils  by  listening  to  the  reading  of  books  that 
did  not  call  for  the  exercise  of  much  concen- 
tration. His  mind  had  become  a  machine  for 
grinding  laws  out  of  large  collections  of  facts, 
and  he  deplored  the  injury  thus  inflicted  upon 
his  mental  and  moral  capacities. 

A  hundred  years  have  passed  away  since 
Charles  Darwin  was  born,  the  last  fifty  of  which 
have  been  dominated  by  him  more  than  by 
any  other  man  of  science.  A  great  soul  is  the 
epitome  of  the  race,  and  in  so  great  a  soul  as 
his,  dedicated  to  the  search  for  truth,  the  race 
was  bom  to  larger  opportunities.  He  was  the 
first  to  catch  and  reflect  a  light,  the  conscious 
advent   of    which,    without   him,   might   have 

*  Darwin's  Autobiography  and  Letters  (N.  Y.,  1893),  p.  65. 
[41] 


Charles    Darwin 

been  indefinitely  postponed.  He  created  a 
revolution  which  has  had  no  equal  in  the 
intellectual  history  of  the  modern  world  since 
the  Renaissance  and  the  Reformation.  His 
mind,  like  an  artesian  well,  was  pierced  deeply 
by  his  constant  meditations,  and  a  stream  of 
clear  truth  sprang  forth  which  washed  away 
the  barriers  that  restrained  scientific  and  even 
religious  thought.  He  gave  coherence  and 
meaning  to  the  inchoate  accumulations  of 
natural  knowledge.  He  stimulated  research 
and  mapped  out  the  lines  on  which  it  could 
intelligently  proceed  to  ascertainable  ends. 
Nor  is  it  too  much  to  say  that  his  work  "chas- 
tened and  refined"^  not  only  the  intellectual 
but  "the  moral  aspects"  of  science  and  philoso- 
phy. The  entire  field  of  human  effort  has 
acquired  new  promise  and  dignity.  For  al- 
though biology  was  the  cradle  of  the  movement, 
its  ramifications  have  spread  into  many  other 
fields  which  have  become  abundantly  fertile. 
To  Darwin  belongs  the  unspeakable  merit  of 
inoculating  his  owti  and  future  generations  with 
the  idea  of  progressive  development.  The 
statesman,  the  social  reformer,  and  the  theo- 
logian have  been  touched  with  a  new  enthusi- 
asm born  of  the  hope  of  better  things.  They 
determined  to  parallel  the  story  of  progress  in 
nature  by  effecting  a  like  unfolding  in  the 
realms    of    politics,    ethics,   and    religion.     In 

'  Fifty  Years  of  Darwinism,  p.  4. 

[42] 


Charles    Darwin 

directing  the  eyes  of  the  world  toward  an  ideal, 
all  the  more  attractive  because  its  outlines  are 
lost  in  the  bright  faith  of  a  possible  perfecti- 
bility, Darwin  did  the  greatest  service  man  can 
render  to  his  fellows. 

A  day  dawned  when  controversy  was  hushed 
in  the  presence  of  death;  criticism  gave  place 
to  tribute;  and  all  vied  with  each  other  in  their 
eulogies  on  the  departed  scientist.  Huxley, 
who  knew  him  intimately,  voiced  the  common 
sentiments  when  he  referred  to  the  extraordinary 
affection  and  esteem  for  his  character  as  a  man, 
and  the  veneration  for  his  endowments  as  a 
scientific  philosopher,  which  were  felt  through- 
out the  world.  Intellectually  he  had  no  superior, 
and  his  infinite  variety  and  accuracy  of  knowl- 
edge attracted  the  best  minds.  "Acute  as 
were  his  reasoning  powers,  vast  as  was  his 
knowledge,  marvelous  as  was  his  tenacious 
industry,  brave  as  was  the  struggle  he  waged 
against  ill  health,  these  were  not  the  qualities," 
continued  Huxley,  "which  impressed  those 
who  were  admitted  to  his  friendship;  but  a 
certain  and  almost  passionate  honesty,  by 
which  all  his  thoughts  and  actions  were  irradi- 
ated as  by  a  central  fire,  was  the  rarest  and 
greatest  endowment." 

Darwin  died  suddenly  on  the  19th  of  April, 
1882,  and  on  the  24th  was  buried  in  England's 
great  Abbey  at  Westminster,  in  accordance  with 

'  Huxley's  Darwiniana,  pp.  245-246. 

[43] 


Charles    Darwin 

the  general  feeling  that  such  a  man  should  not 
go  to  the  grave  without  the  chief  recognition 
the  British  nation  can  bestow  on  her  elect  sons. 
The  body  rests  by  the  side  of  that  of  Sir  Isaac 
Newton,  who  did  for  the  heavens  what  Darwin 
did  for  the  earth.  "For  just  so  surely  as  the  dis- 
covery and  demonstration  of  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion established  order  in  the  place  of  chaos, 
and  laid  a  lasting  foundation  for  all  future 
study  of  the  heavens,  so  surely  the  discovery 
of  the  law  of  natural  selection  established  a 
firm  basis  for  all  future  study  of  nature." 


[44] 


SECOND   LECTURE 
THOMAS  HENRY  HUXLEY 


"And  though  all  the  ivinds  of  doctrine  loere  let  loose 
to  play  upon  the  earth,  so  Truth  be  in  the  field,  we  do 
injuriously  by  licensing  and  prohibiting  to  misdoubt 
her  strength.  Let  her  and  Falsehood  grapple;  who 
ever  knew  Truth  put  to  the  worse,  in  a  free  and  open 
encounter?''  John  Milton. 


THOMAS   HENRY   HUXLEY 


IT  is  an  appropriate  transition  from  Darwin 
to  the  man  who  was  his  close  ally  and  fight- 
ing general  in  the  controversies  aroused  by  the 
publication  of  the  Origin  of  Species  and  The 
Descent  of  Man.  Darwin  could  not  have  been 
more  fortunate  in  his  exponent,  advocate,  and 
defender.  He  seldom  noticed  attacks  which 
were  ill-natured  and  unjust,  and  maintained  a 
dignified  silence  in  the  presence  of  a  frantic 
and  unscrupulous  opposition.  Some  extreme 
participants  endeavored  to  stifle  the  evolution 
theory  at  its  inception.  Scientists  have  placed 
the  chief  blame  for  this  hasty  condemnation 
upon  theologians  and  ecclesiastics,  ignoring  the 
fact  that  not  a  few  of  their  own  leaders  repu- 
diated the  Darwinian  hypothesis  as  untenable 
and  absurd.  Without  enlarging  on  the  strange 
conduct  of  Sir  Richard  Owen,  whose  shufflings 
provoked  even  the  gentle  nature  of  Darwin, 
Sir  Charles  Lycll  had  considerable  difficulty  in 
preventing  Sir  William  Dawson  from  adversely 
reviewing  the  Origin  before  he  had  opened  the 
book.  After  naturalists  had  begun  to  feel  the 
weight  of  its  reasonings,  they  were  slow  to 
admit  them.  As  a  newly  discovered  principle, 
[47] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

natural    selection    was    compelled    to    face    an 
unprepared  and  prejudiced  public. 

At  this  juncture  Thomas  Henry  Huxley 
stepped  into  the  breach,  threw  down  the 
gauntlet,  and  during  the  strenuous  period  that 
followed  became  the  recognized  champion  of 
freedom  for  scientific  thought  and  utterance. 
He  was  already  favorably  known  to  Darwin, 
who  had  declared  that  there  were  three  men  in 
Britain  upon  whose  verdict  he  relied,  Lyell, 
Hooker,  and  Huxley.  If  he  could  convince 
them,  he  could  afford  to  wait  for  the  rest.  The 
last  of  the  three,  a  brilliant  young  scientist  still 
in  his  thirties,  who  by  the  extent  and  accuracy 
of  his  knowledge,  and  the  soundness  of  his 
scientific  judgment,  had  become  equally  formi- 
dable as  an  opponent  or  apologist.  After  rapidly 
reviewing  the  Origin,  he  wrote  to  the  author : 
"As  for  your  doctrine,  I  am  prepared  to  go  to 
the  stake,  if  requisite,  in  support  of  Chapter  IX 
and  most  parts  of  Chapters  X,  XI,  XII.  ...  I 
trust  you  will  not  allow  yourself  to  be  in  any 
way  disgusted  or  annoyed  by  the  considerable 
abuse  and  misrepresentation  which,  unless  I 
greatly  mistake,  is  in  store  for  you.  .  .  .  Some 
of  your  friends,  at  any  rate,  are  endowed  with 
an  amount  of  combativeness  which  (though 
you  have  often  and  justly  rebuked  it)  may 
stand  you  in  good  stead.  I  am  sharpening  up 
my  claws  and  beak  in  readiness."  ^ 

1  Lije  and  Letters  of  T.  U.  Huxley,  Vol.  I,  p.  188-189. 
[481 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

The  writer  of  this  mihtant  letter  was  bom 
at  Eahng,  a  suburb  of  London,  on  May  4,  1825. 
He  was  the  seventh  and  youngest  surviving 
child  of  George  Huxley,  senior  master  in  the 
well-known  school  of  Dr.  Nicholas.  In  his 
Recollections  he  ascribes  the  majority  of  his 
physical  traits  to  his  mother,  whose  maiden 
name  was  Rachel  Withers.  His  faculties  of 
intuition  and  criticism,  his  keenness  of  per- 
ception and  flashes  of  sardonic  humor  were  also 
a  maternal  inheritance.  They  were  helpful 
gifts,  though  not  without  serious  drawbacks. 
He  confessed  that  at  intervals  they  played  him 
sad  tricks  and  were  in  need  of  constant  restraint. 
Deeply  attached  to  that  mother,  young  Huxley 
would  lie  awake  at  night  possessed  by  the 
morbid  fears  of  a  sensitive  and  affectionate 
child,  and  wondering  what  would  become  of 
him  in  the  event  of  her  death.  When  at  length 
the  dreaded  blow  fell,  it  crushed  him,  and  for  a 
time  his  grief  knew  no  bounds.  He  was  not 
an  easy  boy  to  understand,  and  her  approbation 
and  sympathy  had  been  his  highest  rewards. 
His  eldest  and  always  favorite  sister  promptly 
took  the  mother's  place,  and  but  for  her  en- 
couragement at  thi^crisis  he  might  have  lost 
forever  the  buoyancy  and  determination  which 
afterward  enabled  him  to  stem  the  tides  of  a 
tempestuous  career.  To  his  father  were  due 
his  choleric  temper,  tenacity  of  purpose,  love 
for  paintings  and  music,  and  the  artistic  faculty 
[49] 


Thomas   Henry  Huxley 

which  enabled  him  to  make  those  instanta- 
neous and  vivid  sketches  with  which  he  illumi- 
nated his  lectures. 

n 

Huxley's  early  education  was  not  so  thorough 
as  might  have  been  expected;  but  the  academic 
loss  was  compensated  by  his  zeal  for  literature, 
his  indomitable  will,  and  the  intercourse  he 
shared  with  well-informed  people.  When  he 
was  twelve  he  read  Button's  Geology,  a  valuable 
book  which  preceded  Ly ell's  Pri?iciples,  and  a 
little  later  he  studied  Hamilton's  Logic.  The 
author,  however,  who  most  profoundly  influ- 
enced his  formative  years  and  inspired  his  high 
ideals  of  duty  and  passion  for  veracity,  his 
abhorrence  of  unreality  and  contempt  for  sub- 
terfuge, was  Thomas  Carlyle.  In  1840  he 
obtained  a  copy  of  Sartor  Resartus,  and  from 
that  moment  he  was  made  aware  of  the  pur- 
pose and  discipline  of  life.  An  incidental  result 
of  his  contact  with  the  Sage  of  Chelsea  was  his 
esteem  for  Continental  languages.  He  at  once 
commenced  the  study  of  German,  and  also 
obtained  a  thorough  knowledge  of  French  and 
Italian.  These  acquirements  later  enabled  him 
to  tabulate  international  scientific  authorities, 
and  by  their  means  he  systematized  the  results 
of  foreign  research  and  compared  them  with  his 
own.  For  a  youtli  of  fifteen  to  gain  unaided  a 
knowledge  of  foreign  tongues  was  almost  un- 
[50] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

known  in  England  at  that  time.  Huxley's  in- 
sight was  always  remarkably  acute.  He  saw 
how  Teutonic  thought  had  fed  the  flame  of 
Carlyle's  genius,  and  he  determined  to  make 
himself  familiar  with  the  masters  of  philosophy, 
history,  and  science  in  their  own  speech. 

As  he  approached  his  majority,  interesting 
glimpses  concerning  his  impressions  and  obser- 
vations can  be  gathered  from  his  reminiscences. 
Speculations  on  the  why  and  wherefore  of 
things  in  general,  discussions  on  the  rights  and 
wrongs  of  existing  institutions,  a  chronic  im- 
pulse to  penetrate  to  the  bed-rock  of  facts,  are 
frequently  found ;  while  prevading  all  else  there 
is  a  contemptuous  indignation  toward  any- 
thing that  savors  of  injustice  and  oppression. 
This  resentment  was  painfully  accentuated 
during  his  residence  in  Rotherhithe,  where  he 
commenced  his  medical  studies  with  a  certain 
Dr.  Chandler.  Here,  in  the  black  heart  of  one 
of  London's  centers  of  destitution  and  igno- 
rance, unmitigated  vice  and  misery  abounded. 
Squalid  surroundings,  with  their  resultant 
waste  of  humanity,  drew  from  Huxley  the  bitter 
comment  that  the  place  was  "a  vast  Serbonian 
bog,  which  swallowed  up  hope  and  being." 
Contact  with  these  sickening  scenes  of  woeful 
social  disorder  left  an  indelible  impression  on 
him;  they  cut  him  to  the  quick,  and  many  years 
afterward  he  said,  "I  have  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  seeing  for  myself  something  of  the 
[51] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

way  in  which  the  poor  of  London  live;  not 
much,  indeed,  but  still  enough  to  give  a  terrible 
foundation  of  real  knowledge  to  my  specula- 
tions." 1 

He  escaped  to  a  less  poverty-stricken  section 
of  the  city,  and  joined  his  brother-in-law,  Dr. 
John  Godwin  Scott,  as  a  preliminary  to  obtain- 
ing his  medical  degree  at  London  University. 
The  conditions  for  the  entrance  examinations 
required  testimonials  of  character,  and  among 
those  solicited  was  John  Henry  Newman,  then 
an  Anglican  vicar,  who  had  once  been  a  pupil 
in  the  school  of  Dr.  Nicholas.  In  1842  he  was 
admitted  to  Charing  Cross  Hospital,  and 
finally,  in  1845,  graduated  with  marked  suc- 
cess in  chemistry,  anatomy,  and  philosophy. 
The  professor  in  the  last-named  subject, 
Wharton  Jones,  impressed  Huxley  as  much  by 
his  personality  as  by  his  teaching.  His  fellow 
students  recalled  in  after  days  the  tall,  cadaver- 
ous youth,  whose  extraordinary  energy  resulted 
in  his  first  contribution  to  science  —  a  hitherto 
undiscovered  structure  in  the  human  hair 
sheath.  This  discovery  is  still  known  as 
"Huxley's  layer." 

His  application,  on  leaving  college,  for  a 
position  as  surgeon  in  the  Royal  Navy  secured 
him  an  appointment  to  the  frigate  Rattlesnake 
as  assistant  to  Dr.  Thompson.     In  one  respect 

1  Life  and  Letters  of  T.  II.  Uuxlcy,  Vol.  I,  p.  16. 
[52] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

there  is  a  similarity  between  his  beginnings  as 
a  scientist  and  those  of  his  intimate  friends 
Darwin  and  Hooker.  Darwin  made  his  famous 
voyage  in  the  Beagle,  Hooker  accompanied  Sir 
James  Ross  to  the  Antarctic  regions,  and 
Huxley  spent  four  years  in  the  Australian 
waters. 

After  vexatious  delays,  against  which  Hux- 
ley chafed,  the  cruise  of  the  Rattlesnake 
began  on  December  3,  1846,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Captain  Stanley,  the  brother  of  the 
well-known  Dean  of  Westminster.  Sydney 
was  reached  on  July  16,  1847.  The  Admiralty 
offered  meager  provision  for  the  researches 
Huxley  was  expected  to  make;  but  the  lack  of 
a  suitable  equipment  only  spurred  him  to 
additional  efforts,  and  added  merit  to  his 
achievements.  His  published  results  dealt  with 
the  lower  organisms  known  before  as  Zoophytes 
and  now  as  Ccelenterata.  He  carefully  arranged 
the  series,  and  demonstrated  that  a  common 
plan  of  structure  obtained  among  them.  His 
generalizations  upon  these,  together  with  other 
kindred  matters,  were  in  themselves  sufficient 
to  give  him  commendable  rank  in  any  philo- 
sophical history  of  zoology.  The  results  were 
forwarded  to  the  Linnsean  Society,  London, 
"with  much  the  same  outcome  as  that  gained 
by  Noah  when  he  sent  forth  the  raven  from 
the  ark."  Exasperated  by  this  neglect,  he 
turned  to  the  Royal  Society  and  placed  before 
[53] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

it  an  elaborate  account  of  the  anatomy  and 
affinity  of  the  Medusse.  "This  venture  proved 
to  be  his  dove,  although  he  was  not  aware  of  it 
until  his  return  home."  On  June  5,  1851, 
Huxley  was  elected  a  fellow  of  the  Society, 
being  one  of  fifteen  selected  from  a  list  of  thirty- 
eight  candidates  —  an  honor  indeed,  the  re- 
ward of  sheer  hard  work,  and,  needless  to 
say,  unstained  by  the  slightest  intrigue.  The 
unknown  student  who  left  Charing  Cross  Hos- 
pital in  1846,  too  young  as  yet  to  qualify  for 
entrance  at  the  College  of  Surgeons,  was  now 
at  twenty -six  a  member  of  the  world's  pre- 
mier organization  for  the  advancement  of 
scientific  learning.  Nothing  could  have  been 
more  conducive  to  this  propitious  end  than  his 
solitary  life  at  sea.  He  had  set  out  with  a  sat- 
isfactory groundwork  in  anatomy  and  physiol- 
ogy; he  returned  an  expert  in  these  departments 
of  knowledge  and  a  learned  ethnologist.  A 
layman  in  science  can  scarcely  appreciate 
the  value  of  personal  observation  and  experi- 
ment if  untrammeled  thought  is  to  be  devel- 
oped. The  discoverer  of  such  results  as  Huxley 
obtained  must  be  detached,  independent,  free 
from  the  dictation  of  conventional  schools,  and 
thrown  upon  liis  own  intellectual  resources. 
He  is  then  compelled  to  test  each  simple  object 
as  regards  its  properties  and  history.  There 
is  risk  in  this,  because  it  is  the  business  of  the 
pioneer;  but  Huxley,  escaping  the  dogmas  of 
[54] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

scientific  sects,  challenged  the  risk  and  won  the 
prize,  Virchow's  observation  that  this  is  not  an 
unknown  occurrence  to  one  who  is  acquainted 
with  the  progress  of  knowledge  can  be  extended 
to  all  who,  like  the  youthful  surgeon  of  the 
Rattlesnake,  have  dared,  after  making  every 
possible  reckoning,  to  steer  their  own  course. 
The  spirit  of  his  enterprise  is  vigorously  por- 
trayed in  a  letter  which  deals  with  his  aims 
and  prospects.  "There  are,"  he  says,  "many 
nice  people  in  this  world,  for  whose  praise  or 
blame  I  care  not  a  whistle.  I  don't  know,  and 
I  don't  care,  whether  I  shall  ever  be  what  is 
called  a  great  man.  I  will  leave  my  mark 
somewhere,  and  it  shall  be  clear  and  distinct 
[T.  H.  H.,  his  mark],  and  free  from  the 
abominable  blur  of  cant,  humbug,  and  self- 
seeking  which  surrounds  everything  in  this 
present  world  —  that  is  to  say,  supposing  that 
I  am  not  already  unconsciously  tainted 
myself,  a  result  of  which  I  have  a  morbid 
dread."  ^ 

Though  highly  controversial,  Huxley  had  a 
warm  and  sensitive  nature,  which  found  its 
climax  in  the  perfect  sympathy  and  charming 
intercourse  of  his  domestic  life.  He  met  his 
future  wife,  Miss  Henrietta  Anna  Heathorn, 
while  he  was  attached  to  the  Australian  Expe- 
dition, and  after  a  long  and  protracted  court- 
ship they  were  married.     When  she  arrived  in 

2  Life  and  Letters  of  T.  H.  Huxley,  p.  69. 
[55] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

England,  she  was  seriously  impaired  in  health, 
and  he  was  a  poor  and  strugghng  professional 
man;  but  he  tenderly  nursed  her  back  to 
strength,  and  she  entered  into  his  life  with  a 
fulness  of  reciprocal  affection  which  aroused  to 
activity  the  nobler  elements  of  his  character. 
Their  son  Leonard  eulogizes  the  wife  and  mother 
who  was  to  be  his  father's  stay  for  forty  years: 
"in  his  struggles  ready  to  counsel,  in  adversity 
to  comfort;  the  critic  whose  verdict  he  valued 
above  almost  any,  and  whose  praise  he  cared 
most  to  win."^  She  was  his  first  care  and  last 
thought,  and  their  entire  married  life  was  a 
notable  example  of  mutual  helpfulnes  and  ser- 
vice. 

IV 

For  some  time  after  Huxley's  return  to  Eng- 
land repeated  repulses  discouraged  him;  but 
the  year  1854  brought  him  some  of  the  more 
solid  tokens  of  success.  "I  have  finally  decided 
that  my  vocation  is  science,"  he  writes  to  an 
Australian  friend;  "and  I  have  made  up  my 
mind  to  the  comparative  poverty  which  is  its 
necessary  adjunct,  and  to  the  no  less  certain 
seclusion  from  the  ordinary  pleasures  and 
rewards  of  men."  -  In  this  sacrificial  temper 
he  began  and  ended  his  career.  His  earliest 
ambition   was   to   become   a   mechanical   engi- 

1  Life  mid  Letters  of  T.  U.  Huxley,  Vol.  I,  p.  39. 

2  Ibid,  Vol.  I,  p.  101. 

[56  1 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

neer,  and  in  a  retrospective  mood  he  is  not 
sure  that  he  had  not  been  one  all  along,  though 
in  partihus  infidelium.  Physiology,  which  was 
his  chief  delight,  is  but  the  working  out  of  the 
wonderful  unity  of  plan  in  the  thousands  and 
thousands  of  diverse  living  constructions,  show- 
ing their  mechanical  engineering,  and  the  modi- 
fications of  similar  apparatus  to  serve  diverse 
ends. 

Huxley's  l9,bors  in  behalf  of  public  instruc- 
tion were  second  only  to  his  achievements  as 
an  eminent  scientist,  and  his  definition  of  a 
liberal  education  has  become  a  classic.  It  is 
found  in  a  lecture  delivered  at  the  Working 
Men's  College,  London,  in  1868: 

"That  man,  I  think,  has  had  a  liberal  edu- 
cation who  has  been  so  trained  in  his  youth 
that  his  body  is  the  ready  servant  of  his  will, 
and  does  with  ease  and  pleasure  all  the  work 
that,  as  a  mechanism,  it  is  capable  of;  whose 
intellect  is  a  clear,  cold,  logic  engine,  with  all 
its  parts  of  equal  strength,  and  in  smooth  work- 
ing order,  ready,  like  a  steam-engine,  to  be 
turned  to  any  kind  of  work,  and  spin  the 
gossamers  as  well  as  forge  the  anchors  of  the 
mind ;  whose  mind  is  stored  with  a  knowledge 
of  the  great  and  fundamental  truths  of  Nature 
and  of  the  laws  of  her  operations;  one  who,  no 
stunted  ascetic,  is  full  of  life  and  fire,  but  whose 
passions  are  trained  to  come  to  heel  by  a 
vigorous  will,  the  servant  of  a  tender  con- 
[57] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

science ;  who  has  learnt  to  love  all  beauty 
whether  of  nature  or  of  art,  to  hate  all  vileness, 
and  to  respect  others  as  himself.  Such  a  one, 
and  no  other,  I  conceive,  has  a  liberal  education; 
for  he  is,  as  completely  as  a  man  can  be,  in 
harmony  with  Nature.  He  will  make  the  best 
of  her,  and  she  of  him.  They  will  get  on 
together  rarely:  she  as  his  ever-beneficent 
mother ;  he  as  her  mouthpiece,  her  conscious 
self,  her  minister  and  mterpreter."^ 

This  severe  and  dignified  utterance  is  as  no- 
table for  what  it  omits  as  for  what  it  includes; 
yet  his  faith  in  it  never  wavered  for  an  instant, 
and  he  extended  its  possibilities  to  all  alike, 
tradesmen,  artisans,  and  members  of  aristo- 
cratic circles.  Huxley  was  not  one  of  those 
superior  dons  who  regard  with  aversion  the 
multitude  beyond  the  academy,  or  who  deem 
a  popular  lecture  unworthy  of  the  serious 
efforts  of  a  philosopher  or  a  scholar.  On  the 
contrary,  the  task  of  putting  the  truths  of  the 
laboratory  and  the  museum  into  language 
which  was  strictly  accurate  and  yet  intelligible 
taxed  his  scientific  and  literary  powers  to  the 
utmost.  St.  George  jNlivart  tells  us  that  the 
need  of  clearness  was  often  brought  home 
to  the  professor  when  addressing  promiscuous 
audiences.  At  the  close  of  one  of  his  efforts 
at  the  Royal  Institution  a  lady  approached  him, 
and,  after  profuse  thanks  for  the  intellectual 

'  Collected  Essays:  Science  and  Education,  p.  86. 
[58] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

treat  he  had  given  her,  ventured  to  say 
there  was  one  point  she  did  not  quite  under- 
stand: "You  referred  to  the  cerebellum,  and 
I  did  not  gather  whether  you  said  this  was 
inside  the  skull  or  outside."  Experiences  of 
this  kind  were  more  frequent  than  one  would 
imagine,  and  they  enforced  upon  Huxley  the 
simplicity  of  exposition  which  gave  urbanity 
and  elasticity  to  his  style.  The  first  series  of 
lectures  to  working  men,  just  mentioned,  was 
delivered  in  1855.  They  were  free  from  the 
pedantries  of  technical  dialect,  and  revealed  to 
thousands  who  dwelt  in  the  common  ways  of 
men  the  fruits  of  his  remote  and  arduous  pur- 
suits. The  one  on  A  Piece  of  Chalk  is  a  sterling 
example  of  the  perspicacity  and  maturity  of  his 
popular  utterances.  Without  injuring  for  a 
moment  the  comprehension  and  fidelity,  de- 
tail and  description  involved  in  the  matters 
treated,  he  strove  to  make  his  meaning  acces- 
sible to  those  who  could  not  have  had  any  pre- 
vious knowledge  of  the  subject.  He  enabled 
the  non-scientific  but  shrewd  workmen  who 
crowded  his  lecture-halls  to  see  the  truth  as  he 
saw  it,  and  the  result  was  that  experts  them- 
selves acknowledged  these  deliverances  to  be 
masterpieces  of  lucid  reasoning  and  genuine 
eloquence.  He  satirically  deplores  the  loss  of 
that  mellifluous  oratory  which  leads,  far  more 
surely  than  worth,  capacity,  or  honest  work, 
to  the  highest  places  in  Church  and  State,  and 
[59] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

states  that  he  has  been  obHged  to  content  him- 
self with  saying  what  he  meant  to  say  in  the 
plainest  of  plain  language. 

The  inaugural  address  of  Johns  Hopkins 
University  in  the  centennial  year  of  1876  is  a 
complete  specimen  of  the  new  combination  of 
science  with  literature  which  his  speeches  had 
effected.  The  lectures  on  evolution  were  first 
heard  in  New  York  City.  On  his  arrival  he 
was  introduced  to  Professor  O.  C.  Marsh,  who 
had  made  a  careful  study  of  fossils  gathered 
from  the  strata  of  the  Western  states.  Marsh 
presented  his  data  to  Huxley  before  he  began 
his  course.  It  was  entirely  new  to  him,  and  he 
promptly  avowed  his  indebtedness.  The  facts 
demonstrated  for  the  first  time  the  direct  line 
of  descent  of  an  existing  animal.  "With  the 
generosity  of  true  greatness,"  saj^s  Professor 
Marsh,  "he  gave  up  his  own  opinions  in  the 
face  of  truth,  and  took  my  conclusions  as  the 
basis  of  his  famous  lecture  on  the  horse."  ^ 

Huxley  was  at  home  in  the  United  States,  and 
he  everywhere  received  a  warm  welcome.  His 
instincts  were  entirely  democratic.  His  ad- 
vocacy of  thought  and  speech,  as  well  as  his 
standing  as  an  authority  on  debated  issues, 
commended  him  to  a  freedom-loving  people. 
All  classes  of  society-  were  interested  in  him  : 
the  miners  of  California  read  his  essays  at 
night  around  their  camp-fires,  and  the  univer- 

^  Marsh" s  Life,  Vol.  I,  p.  4G2,  English  edition. 

[60] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

sities  and  various  bodies  of  learning  united 
to  do  him  honor.  From  the  day  he  landed 
until  his  departure  the  visit  was  crowded 
with  gratifying  experiences.  His  comments  on 
American  life  and  scenery  were  character- 
istically pungent.  "In  the  Old  World  the 
first  things  you  see  as  you  approach  a  great 
city  are  steeples,"  he  said;  "here  you  see  first 
centers  of  intelligence."  It  was  an  infirmity  of 
this  gifted  mind  that  it  could  not  associate 
church  spires  with  intelligence.  He  gazed  in- 
tently at  the  tugboats  which  tore  up  and  down 
New  York  Harbor,  and  remarked,  "If  I  were 
not  a  man  I  think  I  should  like  to  be  a  tug."^ 
The  fitness  of  his  second  preference  will  be 
admitted  by  those  who  have  seen  this  particu- 
lar craft,  and  who  also  understand  his  restless 
and  resistless  genius. 

He  readily  perceived  the  vital  relation  be- 
tween education  and  democracy,  and  he  avowed 
his  belief  in  science  as  a  fountain  of  ideas  which 
must  sanitate  the  rule  of  the  people.  "Man 
does  not  live  by  bread  alone,"  and  the  highest 
function  of  institutions  for  education  is  to 
seek  out  and  cherish  those  leaders  who  will 
carry  the  interpretation  of  nature  a  step  farther 
than  their  predecessors.  By  their  agencies  the 
moral  worth  and  intellectual  clearness  of  the 
individual  citizen  are  secured,  and  the  general 
welfare  is  advanced. 

1  Life  and  Letters,  Vol.  I,  p.  494. 
[61] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 


Ethics  occupy  almost  as  important  a  sphere  in 
Huxley's  teaching  as  science  or  education.  He 
had  a  noble  conception  of  character,  and  placed 
clever  men  low  in  the  scale  of  his  esteem.  To 
Wilfred  Ward  he  said,  "Men  of  ability  are 
common  enough,  but  men  of  character  and  con- 
viction are  very  rare."  ^  In  this  statement 
there  is  nothing  of  the  cynicism  of  Diogenes;  it 
rather  hints  at  the  tremendous  struggle  involved 
in  building  up  true  character.  He  showed  him- 
self freely  to  kindred  spirits  like  Charles  King- 
sley,  and  spoke  feelingly  of  the  influences  which 
had  saved  him  from  shipwreck.  His  indebted- 
ness to  Carlyle,  who  taught  him  that  a  deep 
sense  of  religion  was  compatible  with  the  entire 
absence  of  theology;  his  scientific  research,  in 
itself  a  severe  lesson  in  morality,  and  the  love 
he  bore  his  wife  and  children  were  the  grounds 
where  he  cast  anchor  and  outrode  the  storms. 
They  were  also  the  bases  of  his  frequent  con- 
tributions to  ethical  discussions,  which  cannot 
be  given  at  length,  but  which  find  their  highest 
expression  in  the  Romanes  Lecture  on  Evolu- 
tion and  Ethics  delivered  at  Oxford  in  1893,  It 
was  brilliant,  evincing  a  large  grasp  of  the 
necessary  facts,  a  true  sense  of  historical  per- 
spective, a  capacity  for  keen  analysis,  and  the 
breezy  candor  which  we  have  learned  to  asso- 

1  Nineteenth  Century,  Vol.  XL,  p.  28-1. 

[62] 


Thomas  Henry   Huxley 

ciate  with  his  utterances.  He  passes  in  review 
ethical  theories  of  many  nations  and  cults, 
Oriental  and  Occidental,  Greek  and  Roman, 
ancient  and  modern.  When  he  comes  to  his 
own,  it  appears  to  be  a  scientific  Buddhism, 
with  a  heroism  optimistic  rather  than  pessi- 
mistic as  the  main  feature  of  differentiation. 
Two  prominent  and  descriptive  phrases  fur- 
nish the  gate  of  entrance  into  the  heart  of  the 
conception  he  wished  to  convey.  He  speaks  of 
"the  cosmic  process,"  and  "the  ethical  process." 
The  first  needs  a  word  of  explanation,  the 
second  is  in  direct  opposition  to  the  first. 

For  Huxley,  as  for  Darwin,  the  struggle  for 
existence  in  the  life  of  the  organic  world  was  a 
fact  involving  tremendous  issues,  and  beset  by 
complications  they  could  not  wholly  unravel.  It 
constantly  recurs  in  all  their  discussions  of  the 
problems  of  development.  It  had,  as  we  have 
seen  in  the  case  of  Malthus,  a  profound  and 
formative  influence  on  the  theories  of  the 
methods  of  creation  advanced  by  them  and 
many  other  nineteenth-century  scientists.  Per- 
haps there  was  no  more  insurmountable  barrier 
to  faith  than  the  one  its  difliculties  furnished. 
Yet  not  all  agree  with  Huxley  concerning  the 
extent  and  severity  of  the  conflict.  He  speaks 
of  a  "civil  war"  between  the  realms  of  nature 
and  of  morals,  and  this  war  must  continue, 
since  the  moral  progress  of  society  "depends, 
not  on  imitating  the  cosmic  process,  still  less  in 
[63] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

running  away  from  it,  but  in  combating  it." 
Russel  Wallace  would  not  have  admitted  so 
much  as  this,^  and  Prince  Kropotkin  reads 
into  the  character  of  lower  creation  his  own 
kindness  and  generosity.  Indeed,  he  goes  too 
far  in  the  opposite  direction  from  Huxley,  and 
fails  to  perceive  that  where  animals  form  com- 
binations they  do  so  for  mutual  defense  and 
aggression;  that  where  they  remain  solitary, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  tiger,  it  is  because  they 
can  live  ^  without  cooperation.  But  if  nature 
is  not  an  incipient  paradise,  nor  is  it  a  con- 
tinual shambles.  Deeds  of  blood  are  constantly 
perpetrated ;  yet,  like  those  of  the  ancient  Greek 
tragedy,  they  are  to  a  great  extent  carefully 
hidden.  There  would  be  no  place  for  poetry 
and  romance  in  the  world  if  "nothing  but 
slaughter  'were'  going  on  from  morn  till  noon, 
from  noon  till  dewy  eve."  The  "lives  of  the 
hunted"  are  largely  interspaces  of  quiet  con- 
tentment varied  by  occasional  crises.  The 
crises  are  due  to  geographical  changes,  inclem- 
ent seasons,  epidemics,  the  immense  loss  in- 
curred in  the  early  stages,  and  the  intolerance 
of  the  group  toward  a  weak  member  or  toward 
other  groups.  Hence  the  law  prevails  that 
there  is  no  species  of  animals  or  plants  which 
does  not  depend  on  its  fitness  for  its  existence. 
This    law    prevents    the    rapidity    of    increase 

^  See  lecture  on  Darwin,  p.  37. 

^  See  F.  W.  Headley's  Life  and  Evolution,  Chap.  Ill,  pp.  ^15  ff. 

[64] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

which  can  only  be  checked  by  such  competition. 
For  if  all  the  potentialities  of  created  life  became 
actualities,  it  would  swarm  on  land  and  sea  as 
the  frogs  swarmed  in  Egypt,  and  ensure  its 
own  destruction ;  nor  could  it  fail  to  drag  man 
into  the  evils  of  such  unrestraint.  The  same 
struggle  goes  on  among  plants,  though  it  is  less 
apparent.  Parasites  flourish  in  the  vegetable 
kingdom,  and  one  tree  ousts  another  from  the 
soil.  But  man  has  almost  a  monopoly  of  the 
misery  of  the  world.  The  children  of  the  poor 
are  frequently  so  ill-bred  and  ill-nourished  that 
they  lack  the  vital  exuberance  which  is  the 
right  of  living  beings.  The  stern  discipline 
found  in  nature,  and  which  renders  the  great 
service  of  arresting  worthless  types  and  blot- 
ting out  hereditary  diseases,  cannot  obtain 
in  the  ethical  process.  That  fostering  care 
displayed  by  the  fierce  beast  of  the  forest 
toward  its  young  is  sometimes  lacking  in  those 
dehumanized  and  degraded  parents  who  cruelly 
oppress  and  neglect  their  offspring.  When,  in 
addition  to  these  truths,  we  recall  human  sen- 
sibility to  physical  pain,  and  the  penalties  it 
inflicts  upon  the  spiritual  consciousness,  the 
entire  spectacle  is  a  soul-moving  horror  which 
has  caused  every  lover  of  his  kind  to  mourn. 
Even  in  England  forty-eight  per  cent  of  tlie 
population  die  before  the  age  of  twenty-five, 
and  preventable  diseases  account  for  many  of 
these  deaths. 

[65] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

The  survey  is  not  a  hopeful  one,  save  from 
the  Christian  standpoint  of  a  redemptive  im- 
mortality, in  which  the  law  of  compensation 
shall  rectify  the  known  wrongs  of  man's  pres- 
ent heritage.  And  this  should  not  induce  us 
to  consent  to  any  relaxation  of  the  merciful 
energies  of  relief,  but  rather  inspire  wise  and 
philanthropic  effort  to  readjust  the  burdens 
of  the  social  state,  and  thus  realize  as  speedily 
as  possible  a  present  deliverance  from  such 
intolerable  ills.  Huxley  accepted  the  gist  of 
the  last  statement  as  setting  forth  a  necessary 
outcome  of  the  ethical  process.  While  in 
nature  might  is  the  only  right,  and  its  mes- 
sage is  "Be  strong  or  you  die,"  in  morals 
ruthless  self-assertion  gives  place  to  self- 
restraint;  weakness  is  not  a  crime  punishable 
by  death,  but  a  fact  to  be  dealt  with  by  en- 
lightened human  sympathy;  and  instead  of  a 
policy  of  fighting  for  the  survival  of  the  fittest, 
society  ordains  a  new  one  which  ensures  jus- 
tice and  happiness  to  the  many.  He  believed 
that  both  these  processes  were  summed  up  in 
the  laws  of  nature,  inasmuch  as  man,  "physical, 
intellectual,  and  moral,  is  as  much  a  part  of 
nature,  as  purely  a  product  of  the  cosmic 
process,  as  the  humblest  weed." 

His  idea  of  the  opposition  is  that  of  a  man 

trying  to  break  a  piece  of  string;  the  right  arm 

is  in  antagonism  to  the  left  arm,  yet  both  arms 

derive    their    energy   from    the    same    original 

"^    [661 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

source.  Hence  the  conflict  between  natural  and 
moral  principles  is  really  a  necessary  element 
of  the  cosmic  process;  and  if  this  were  the  sum 
total  of  the  Romanes  Lecture,  it  could  not  be 
said  to  have  carried  us  very  far  in  the  search 
for  truth.  But  Huxley  made  an  admission, 
which  in  the  opinion  of  his  critics  vitiates  his 
whole  theory.  He  confessed  that  "cosmic 
evolution  may  teach  us  how  the  good  and  the 
evil  tendencies  of  man  may  have  come  about; 
but,  in  itself,  it  is  incompetent  to  furnish  any 
better  reason  why  what  we  call  good  is  prefer- 
able to  what  we  call  evil  than  we  had  before."  ^ 
Science,  then,  is  incompetent  to  account  for 
the  great  moral  phenomenon  —  the  distinction 
between  right  and  wrong.  Small  wonder  is  it 
that  Huxley  in  conversation  with  Ward,  in 
1894,  vigorously  defended  the  argument  for 
design,  and  added  that  "faulty  as  is  the  Chris- 
tian definition  of  Theism,  it  is  nearer  the  truth 
than  the  creed  of  some  agnostics  who  conceive 
of  no  unifying  principle  in  the  world."  His 
theory  of  life  as  expounded  in  this  lecture 
demands  some  such  unity  of  purpose,  and  he 
was  not  without  glimmerings,  as  he  neared  the 
end  of  his  days,  that  the  only  reasonable 
ground  of  the  unity  is  God  Himself. 

^  Collected  Essays:   Evolution  and  Ethics,  p.  80. 


[67] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

VI 

Huxley's  views  on  the  relation  between 
science  and  religion  were  never  left  in  obscurity. 
He  believed  the  antagonism  between  them  was 
factitious,  fabricated  on  the  one  hand  by 
religionists  who  confused  theology  with  re- 
ligion, and  on  the  other  by  narrow  scien- 
tists who  forgot  that  science  dealt  only  with 
matter-of-fact  phenomena.  The  heathen  sur- 
vivals and  the  crass  philosophies,  under  which 
true  religion  has  so  often  been  interred,  aroused 
his  ire.  He  rejoiced  in  the  rupture,  and  hoped 
that  the  quarrel  would  never  cease  until 
science  had  discharged  one  of  her  most  ben- 
eficent missions  —  relieving  men  from  the  bur- 
den of  a  false  science  imposed  upon  them  in 
the  name  of  religion.  He  held  that  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  if  stripped  of  sentimental  and  mis- 
leading accretions,  would  favor  this  end,  a  view 
supported  by  the  splendid  tribute  he  paid  the 
Bible,  and  by  the  significant  fact  that  he  yielded 
to  his  wife's  influence  and  chose  a  religious 
education  for  his  children.  "Take  the  Bible 
as  a  whole,  make  the  severest  deductions  which 
fair  criticism  can  dictate,  .  .  .  and  there  still 
remains  in  this  old  literature  a  vast  residuum 
of  moral  beauty  and  grandeur.  .  .  .  For  three 
centuries  this  book  has  l)een  woven  into  the 
life  of  all  that  is  best  and  noblest  in  English 
history.  .  .  .  By  the  study  of  what  other  book 
[68  1 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

could  children  be  so  much  humanized  and  made 
to  feel  that  each  figure  in  that  vast  historical 
procession  files,  like  themselves,  between  two 
eternities,  and  earns  the  blessings  or  the  curses 
of  all  time,  according  to  its  effort  to  do  good 
and  hate  evil,  even  as  they  also  are  earning 
their  payment  for  their  work."^ 

The  goal  of  progress  was  a  matter  on  which 
Huxley  had  thought  long  and  profoundly.  He 
refers  to  the  Homeric  sadness  which  arises  out 
of  the  conscious  limitations  of  man,  out  of  the 
sense  of  an  open  secret  which  we  cannot  pene- 
trate, wherein  lie  the  quintessence  of  all  re- 
ligions and  the  source  of  all  that  is  truly 
catholic  in  their  theologies.  He  looks  forward 
to  the  maturity  of  the  race,  when  there  will  be 
but  one  kind  of  knowledge,  and  one  method  of 
its  acquirements ;  when  science  will  have  its  per- 
fect work,  and  when  ignorance,  superstition, 
and  their  consequent  evils  will  be  finally 
abolished.  This  is  the  goal  of  progress  as  he 
conceived  it,  and  he  urges  us  toward  it  with 
luminous  exhortations.  His  dread  of  any  spec- 
ulation in  definite  spiritual  directions  forbade 
an  adequate  and  worthy  climax  for  this  cosmic 
movement.  \Mien  we  interrogate  him  in 
Browning's  words, — 

"You've  seen  the  world, 
The  beauty,  the  wonder,  and  the  power, 

'  Quoted  from  Ainsworlh  Davis'  T.  H.  Iluxley  ("English  Men 
of  Science"  Scries),  p.  103. 

[69  1 


Thomas  Henry   Huxley 

The  shapes  of  things,  their  colors,  Hghts  and  shades. 
Changes,  surprises,  —  and  God  made  it  all ! 
—  For  what  ?  .  .  .  What's  it  all  about  ? 
To  be  passed  over,  despised?  or  dwelt  upon, 
Wondered  at?"^ 

his  answer  is  not  couched  in  the  terms  of 
Haeckel's  materiaHstic  monism,  which  regards 
all  that  is  peculiar  to  man  as  an  insignificant 
by-product  of  the  evolutionary  system,  with 
neither  divine  Alpha  nor  Omega.  Nor  does  he 
find  it  in  that  sense  of  vastness  in  the  modern 
universe  which  estimates  this  planet  and  its 
inhabitants  as  an  atom  of  dust  on  the  crest  of 
a  high  mountain.  Rather  does  he  take  refuge 
with  a  school  of  scientific  prophets,  who,  by 
the  aid  of  mathematical  calculations,  predict 
that  the  process  of  nature,  continually  evolving, 
must  ultimately  issue  in  a  perfect  equilibrium 
of  forces,  implying  the  total  cessation  of  change 
and  culminating  in  universal  death. 

Huxley  expatiates  at  some  length  on  this 
pessimistic  destiny,  and  it  is  important  that  he 
should  be  represented  in  his  own  language: 
"The  theory  of  evolution  encourages  no  mil- 
lennial anticipations.  If,  for  millions  of  years, 
our  globe  has  taken  the  upward  road,  yet,  some 
time,  the  summit  will  be  reached  and  the  down- 
ward route  will  be  commenced."  ^  A  struc- 
tural deficiency  is  here  discernible  in  his  mental 

^  Browning's  Fra  Lippo  Lippi  {Poetical  Works,  Riverside 
edition  v.  4,  p.  80). 

^  Evolution  and  Ethics,  p.  85. 

[70  1 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

nature.  It  frequently  appears  elsewhere,  and 
its  results  run  athwart  much  of  his  finest  think- 
ing, It  lay  in  the  absence  of  those  adventurous 
tentacles  which  grope  for  the  spiritual  meanings 
of  phenomena.  He  had  few  positive  and  affirm- 
ative sympathies  with  these  hidden  realities. 
Principal  Fairbairn  once  described  Newman  as 
"an  agnostic  baptized  with  religious  emotion." 
The  description  is  just;  for  Newman's  religion 
was  pillared  on  a  great  doubt  and  a  great  fear, 
—  the  doubt  he  had  of  God's  free  action  in 
the  world  apart  from  an  appointed  and  nec- 
essary agency  in  the  Church;  the  fear  he  en- 
tertained of  the  corrosive  influence  of  human 
reason  in  matters  of  faith.  Huxley's  agnosti- 
cism was  less  orientalized  and  subtle,  but,  like 
Newman's,  it  was  inherent.  Bold  to  reck- 
lessness elsewhere,  he  here  manifested  sur- 
prising timidity.  To  affirm  a  personal  Deity, 
especially  one  who  controlled  the  destiny  of 
the  world  and  of  man,  was  more  than  he 
could  allow.  Newman  vanquished  his  fears  by 
enthroning  dogma;  Huxley  confirmed  his  ob- 
liquity by  enthroning  agnosticism. 

A  small  book  containing  his  favorite  aphor- 
isms and  reflections  has  recently  been  issued,^ 
and  the  impression  these  leave  on  the  mind  of 
the  sympathetic  reader  is  that  he  was  seriously 
troubled  by  doubts  of  his  own  theory.  His 
materialism  was    not   without    its   misgivings. 

1  See  Spectator,  April  15,  1911,  p.  553. 

[71] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

Indeed,  he  will  not  allow  that  he  is  a  materialist. 
"The  man  of  science  who,  forgetting  the  limits 
of  philosophical  inquiry,  slides  from  these 
formulae  and  symbols  into  what  is  commonly 
understood  by  materialism,  seems  to  me  to 
place  himself  upon  a  level  with  the  mathemati- 
cian who  should  mistake  the  X's  and  Y's  with 
which  he  works  his  problems  for  real  entities." 
But  he  never  made  any  sacrifices  to  consist- 
ency; and  while  he  puts  aside  materialism,  he 
points  out  that  there  are  still  more  terrible 
theories,  and  seems  to  uphold  its  possibility  by 
threats.  The  rational  grounds  for  belief,  in  his 
esteem,  are  often  extremely  irrational  attempts 
to  justify  our  instincts.  We  are  to  learn  what 
is  "  true  by  setting  aside  all  conclusions  that  can 
not  be  proved."  "All  truth  in  the  long  run  is 
only  common  sense  clarified."  Then  he  some- 
what changes  his  position.  The  one  end  of 
learning  the  truth  is  that  right  may  be  done. 
That  is  the  sole  object  of  all  knowledge.  And, 
after  all,  the  world  is  absolutely  governed  by 
ideas,  very  often  by  the  wildest  and  most 
hypothetical  ideas.  He  asserts,  "in  whichever 
way  we  look  at  the  matter,  morality  is  based 
on  'intuition'  and  feeling,  not  on  reason."  If  you 
ask  why  the  few  in  whom  these  intuitions  are 
strong  move  and  control  the  mass  in  whom 
they  are  weak,  he  answers  the  question  by 
asking  another:  \Yhy  do  the  few  in  whom  the 
sense     of     beauty     is     strong  —  Shakespeare, 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

Raphael,  Beethoven  —  carry  the  less-endowed 
multitude  away?  The  fact  is  not  explained, 
but  "genius  as  an  explosive  power  beats  gun- 
powder hollow."  Such  princes  upset  all  cal- 
culations, and  create  their  own  constituency. 
But  may  not  intuition  and  feeling  be  worthy 
of  the  acceptance  and  even  the  allegiance  of 
men?  Our  assurance  of  free-will,  of  the  benevo- 
lence of  Deity,  and  of  the  highest  elements 
of  religion,  morality,  and  beauty,  depends  on 
them.  The  appeal  of  Christ  to  these  intuitions 
and  feelings  has  convinced  and  carried  men 
upward  to  renewed  existence.  As  the  Syec- 
tator  remarks,  the  doubts  of  his  own  plan  of 
thought  which  Huxley  suggests  are  sufiBcient 
to  form  a  creed.  Where  he  found  his  moral 
assurance  we  cannot  be  debarred  from  find- 
ing our  spiritual  interpretation.  And  this  wit- 
ness standeth  sure,  while  "materialism  fades 
and  changes,  and  with  its  perpetual  flux  and 
welter  of  vibrations  eludes  us  at  every  turn." 
Nor  is  the  last  word  said  by  Huxley  upon  the 
unreasonableness  of  the  skepticism  opposed  to 
these  conclusions.  For  there  is  a  distinction 
between  doubt  and  skepticism,  and  Gladstone 
described  it  at  some  length  when  he  said: 

"For  doubt  I  have  a  sincere  respect,  but 
doubt  and  skepticism  are  different  things.  I 
contend  that  the  skeptic  is  of  all  men  on  earth 
the  most  inconsistent  and  irrational.  He  uses 
a  plea  against  religion  which  he  never  uses 
[73  1 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

against  anything  he  wants  to  do  or  any  idea 
he  wants  to  embrace,  viz.,  the  want  of 
demonstrative  evidence.  Every  day  and  all 
day  long  he  eats  the  dish  he  likes  without  cer- 
tainty that  it  is  not  poisoned;  he  rides  the 
horse  without  certainty  that  the  animal  will 
not  break  its  neck;  he  sends  out  of  the  house 
a  servant  he  suspects  without  demonstration 
of  guilt;  he  marries  the  woman  he  likes  with 
no  absolute  knowledge  that  she  loves  him;  he 
embraces  the  political  opinion  that  he  prefers, 
perhaps  without  any  study  at  all,  certainly 
without  demonstrative  evidence  of  its  truth. 
But  when  he  comes  to  religion  he  is  seized  with 
a  great  intellectual  scrupulosity,  and  demands  as 
a  precondition  of  homage  to  God  what  every- 
where else  he  dispenses  with,  and  then  ends  with 
thinking  himself  more  rational  than  other 
people." 

We  believe  that  both  science  and  religion 
desire  to  express  reality,  and  both  have  great 
realities  to  express.  Religion,  as  well  as  science, 
has  lived  and  will  live  by  the  certainty  of  its 
ideas,  and  these  ideas  are  not  "such  stuff  as 
dreams  are  made  of,"  but  sterling  convictions 
which  have  shaped  and  transfigured  the  whole 
fabric  of  western  civilization.  Their  embodi- 
ment in  ecclesiastical  and  theological  thought 
has  suffered  from  the  perils  incident  to  human 
development.  How  could  it  be  otherwise? 
Christianity  during  the  two  thousand  years  of 
[74  1 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

its  existence  has  passed  through  many  changes 
which  appear  to  us  to-day  crude  and  barbaric. 
Yet,  distorted  and  misapphed  as  it  no  doubt 
has  been,  it  has  met  the  varying  needs  of 
human  nature,  and  become  the  companion  of 
every  human  fate.  It  has  instructed  and  ele- 
vated the  ignorant,  and  at  the  same  time 
proved  the  dehght  and  sheet-anchor  of  the 
learned.  It  is  a  vital  and  timeless  force,  ever 
adaptable  to  the  continually  changing  and 
enlarging  conceptions  of  life,  and  going  before 
the  loftiest  ideals  it  authorizes.  Its  enduring 
principle  of  regeneration  was  never  understood 
by  Huxley,  although  he  admitted  that  its  ori- 
gin and  steady  persistence  against  all  rivalries, 
was  a  profoundly  interesting  problem.  He 
entertained  the  hope  that  the  progress  of 
accurate  historical  research  would  provide  a 
solution.  Such  research  has  been  made,  and 
it  has  proceeded  on  well-defined  lines ;  but  no 
solution  such  as  he  expected  has  been  found. 
For  many  of  us  it  was  a  superfluous  quest, 
since  the  personality  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  both 
history  and  experience,  is  fully  retained,  and 
will  always  remain  the  sole  explanation  of 
this  wonderful  revelation.  Of  course,  for  the 
mind  which  can  discover  no  place  for  a  Creator, 
and  can  see  no  destiny  save  cold  annihilation, 
"the  problem  of  Christ"  will  be  a  curious 
speculation  rather  than  a  mystery  of  divine 
love  and  grace.  To  us,  however,  the  chief  end 
f7o1 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

of  man  is  not  speculation  for  its  own  sake,  but 
that  we  may  glorify  God  and  enjoy  Him  for- 
ever; and  in  a  God-created  and  God-controlled 
universe  it  is  the  only  conceivable  and  worthy 
end.  Its  realization  in  Christ  has  been  the 
stupendous  religious  fact,  for  which  there  is  no 
rational  explanation  except  in  a  frank  admis- 
sion of  His  claims.  Huxley's  consciousness  of 
the  difficulties  involved  in  his  views  on  life  and 
destiny  caused  him  to  advocate  a  resolute  front 
against  the  prospect  of  future  nothingness.  "We 
are  grown  men,  and  must  play  the  man" — 

"Strong  in  will 
To  strive,  to  seek,  to  find,  and  not  to  yield." 

He  admits  that  a  ray  of  light  may  perchance 
steal  in  upon  the  dreadful  gloom : 

"It  may  be  that  the  gulfs  will  wash  us  down, 
It  may  be  we  shall  touch  the  Happy  Isles."  * 

The  natures  that  will  find  comfort  in  this 
scanty  outlook  are  few  indeed,  and  later 
teachers  of  the  evolution  school  have  revolted 
against  its  dismal  predictions.  Mr.  Fiske  says, 
"For  my  own  part,  I  believe  in  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  not  in  the  sense  in  which  I 
accept  the  demonstral)Ie  truths  of  science,  but 
as  a  supreme  act  of  faith  in  the  reasonableness 
of  God's  work."  -     The  spirit  that  breathes  in 

'  Evolution  and  Elliic.fi,  p.  80. 
2  The  Destiny  of  Man,  p.  116. 

[7C1 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

these  admirable  words  is  truly  refreshing.  But 
Le  Conte  is  more  emphatic  still.  He  holds 
that,  without  spirit  —  immortality  —  this  in- 
creasingly beautiful  cosmos,  which  has  run  its 
ageless  course  with  manifest  purpose  and  value, 
would  be  precisely  as  thougli  it  had  never  been 
—  an  idiot  tale  signifying  and  portending  blank 
nothingness.^ 

VII 

Huxley's  value  to  his  generation  was  large 
and  varied.  He  was  an  admirable  pleader  for 
the  atmosphere  in  which  science  must  live  to 
prosper ;  he  knew  the  many  ramifications  of 
natural  knowledge ;  and  his  original  contribu- 
tions were  diversified  and  multitudinous.  In 
regard  to  the  latter,  no  biological  investigator  of 
his  period  excelled  him.  He  practically  founded 
modern  embryology ;  reconstructed  the  classi- 
fication of  organisms,  and  gave  a  renewed 
interest  to  the  facts  of  anatomy.  As  an  ornith- 
ologist, competent  authorities  placed  him  fore- 
most, the  true  position  and  relationships  of  the 
three  groups  of  birds  being  for  the  first  time 
disclosed  by  him.  He  explored  every  nook  and 
corner  of  the  animal  kingdom,  and  returned 
richly  laden  with  its  treasures.  Physiologists 
and  biologists  alone  can  estimate  the  results  of 
his  prodigious  labors  ;  all  that  can  be  attempted 
here  is  to  note  a  few  of  the  landmarks  of  his 

'  Cf.  Lo  Conte's  Evolution  and  its  Relation  to  Religious  Thought, 
p.  329. 

[77] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

later  life.  The  many  important  appointments 
he  held,  the  fullness  of  his  literary  and  public 
labors,  the  honors  bestowed  upon  him,  and  the 
respect  paid  to  his  professional  opinions  by 
European  and  American  scientists,  afford  abun- 
dant evidence  of  the  hold  he  had  upon  his  gen- 
eration. He  was  the  world's  premier  professor 
in  biology,  President  of  the  Royal  Society, 
Lord  Rector  of  Aberdeen  University,  a  member 
of  the  first  London  School  Board,  trustee  of  the 
British  Museum,  corresponding  member  of 
nearly  all  scientific  organizations,  and  a  repre- 
sentative on  several  Government  commissions. 
Degrees  were  lavished  on  him  in  later  life. 
Edinburgh  University  led  the  way  as  early  as 
1866,  when  Tyndall  and  Carlyle  also  shared  her 
appreciation  of  the  attainments  of  a  remarkable 
trinity  of  men.  Dublin  followed  in  1878;  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  came  last,  in  1885  and  1891  re- 
spectively. It  is  generally  known  that  Huxley 
might  have  received  a  title  in  recognition  of  his 
eminent  services,  but  his  opposition  defeated 
the  project.  The  sole  claim  to  nobility  which 
becomes  a  philosopher  is  the  place  he  holds  in 
the  estimation  of  his  fellow  workers,  who  alone 
are  competent  to  judge  his  merits.  Newton 
and  Cuvier  lowered  themselves,  in  his  opinion, 
by  accepting  such  distinctions.  Like  Grote, 
Carlyle,  and  Gladstone,  he  preferred  to  be  known 
by  the  plain  and  unadorned  name  of  Thomas 
Huxley. 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

Failing  health  compelled  his  retirement  from 
official  life  in  1885.  No  sense  of  personal 
gratification  could  delude  him  into  holding  any 
position  for  a  moment  after  reason  and  con- 
science indicated  any  incapacity  to  discharge 
its  duties.  He  went  to  Oxford  to  receive  the 
Doctorate  of  Civil  Law  in  a  melancholy  mood. 
It  was  a  sort  of  apotheosis  coincident  with  his 
official  decease.  But  he  mistook  himself  if  he 
supposed  that  such  retirement  would  mean 
cessation  from  strife.  He  always  succumbed 
to  the  lure  of  the  fray,  and  it  may  be  said  of 
him,  as  of  the  charger  in  Job's  drama,  "he 
smelleth  the  battle  afar  off."  He  had  fought 
with  the  press  at  Edinburgh,  where  the  Witness 
accused  him  of  advocating  a  debasing  theory, 
standing  in  blasphemous  contradiction  to  the 
biblical  narrative  and  doctrine,  and  wondered 
why  the  vile  and  beastly  paradox  he  advanced 
should  not  have  excited  the  wrath  of  the  audi- 
ence. It  was  an  age  of  conflict,  when  men  con- 
tended for  their  several  positions  with  the  zest 
of  those  who  were  sworn  defenders  of  the  citadel 
of  Christian  truth.  Yet  Huxley  was  more 
careful  to  avoid  public  criticism  of  religious 
opinion  than  some  imagined;  and  Mivart, 
Roman  Catholic  though  he  was,  went  out  of 
his  way  to  send  his  son  to  Huxley's  Kensington 
lectures. 

Man}^  of  these  contentions  have  become  so 
barren  that  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  realize  the 
[79  1 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

fear  and  dismay  they  once  excited.  Huxley 
did  not  escape  the  perils  of  the  swordsman  any 
more  than  Bishop  Wilberforce,  Gladstone,  or 
the  rampant  editor  of  the  Witness.  The 
Oxford  prelate  was  not  always  "florid,  fluent, 
and  smilingly  insolent,"  or  distinguished  for 
emptiness  and  unfairness.  He  was  a  truly 
great  man  who  vitalized  the  Episcopal  office, 
and  left  a  lasting  impression  on  the  Church 
of  England.  His  flippancy  in  an  unguarded 
moment  exposed  him  to  the  thrust  of  Huxley's 
trenchant  blade,  and  one  may  be  sure  that  the 
opportunity  was  not  allowed  to  pass.  But  it 
was  Sir  Richard  Owen  who  inspired  the  Wilber- 
force attack,  and  the  duel  was  between  two 
rivals  in  scientific  interpretation,  with  an  un- 
fortunate Church  dignitary  acting  as  the  proxy 
of  the  elder  one.  "The  voice  was  the  voice  of 
Jacob,  but  the  hands  were  the  hands  of  Esau." 
A  more  fortunate  opponent  than  Gladstone 
could  not  have  been  found  for  Huxley's  skillful 
strategy.  The  statesman  used  an  agile  and 
powerful  intellect  to  defend  theories  which  were 
not  necessary  to  faith.  He  gave  those  theories 
such  a  large  personal  setting  that  the  task  of 
demolishing  them  was  congenial  to  the  scientist's 
habit  of  mind.  In  theology  Gladstone  had  no 
history.  What  he  was  at  thirty  he  remained  at 
eighty,  unchanged  and  unchangeable  in  an  age 
of  constant  transition.  Their  passage  at  arms 
showed  this,  and  placed  the  venerable  Liberal 
[80] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

Prime  Minister  at  a  decided  disadvantage.  But 
it  ended  with  a  handsome  postscript  from  Hux- 
ley: "My  best  thanks  are  due  to  Mr.  Gladstone 
for  his  courteous  withdrawal  of  one  of  the  state- 
ments to  which  I  have  thought  it  needful  to 
take  exception.  The  familiarity  with  con- 
troversy .  .  .  will  have  accustomed  him  to  the 
misadventures  which  arise  when  .  .  .  the  but- 
tons come  off  the  foils.  I  trust  that  any  scratch 
which  he  may  have  received  will  heal  as  quickly 
as  my  own  flesh  wounds  have  done."^ 

Whatever  the  merits  or  demerits  of  the  fight 
waged  in  the  last  century,  the  chief  result  was 
the  securing  of  that  liberty  for  theology  and 
natural  science  which  is  at  once  the  cause  and 
the  consequence  of  intellectual  progress.  The 
policy  of  repression  exercised  by  certain  domi- 
nant factions  began  to  weaken,  and  the  un- 
fettered state  of  present  inquiry  in  all  spheres 
of  knowledge  can  be  traced,  in  part  at  any  rate, 
to  the  period  in  which  Huxley  was  an  intrepid 
figure.  Intellectual  and  moral  integrity  were 
his  outstanding  virtues.  His  absolute  loyalty 
to  truth  made  any  sort  of  mental  dishonesty 
intolerable.  He  drove  his  rational  inquiry 
through  the  heart  of  any  prevalent  conceptions 
if  he  believed  them  erroneous.  Fear  of  men 
was  unknown  to  him,  and  he  came  to  the  office 
of  the  scientist  with  the  conviction  that  he 
must  be  the  sworn  interpreter  of  nature  in  the 

1  Huxley's  Collected  Essaijs,  Vol.  IV  p.  283. 

fsii' 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

high  court  of  reason,  let  the  personal  conse- 
quences be  what  they  might.  If  the  situation 
demanded  it,  he  dealt  with  Darwin,  whom  he 
reverenced  as  he  did  few  others,  with  unhesi- 
tating candor. 

There  has  scarcely  been  a  great  physical  truth 
whose  universal  acceptance  has  not  been  pre- 
ceded by  scorn  and  persecution.  Crushed  and 
maimed  in  every  onset,  this  futile  opposition 
was  as  rampant  though  not  so  barbarous  in  the 
nineteenth  century  as  in  the  time  of  Galileo. 
This  attitude  aroused  in  Huxley  the  formidable 
powers  of  a  first-class  fighting  man.  It  for- 
mulated his  resistance,  and  it  also  accentuated 
his  errors.  He  experienced  somewhat  the  force 
of  the  divine  axiom  that  "they  that  take  the 
sword  shall  perish  with  the  sword."  But,  be- 
lieving as  he  believed  with  faith  unfeigned  that 
the  welfare  of  the  race  in  moral,  economic,  and 
industrial  progress  was  absolutely  conditioned 
by  a  thoroughly  scientific  education,  it  is  not 
easy  to  perceive  how  he  could  have  acted  other 
than  he  did.  Nevertheless,  even  to  his  com- 
patriots he  was  a  man  to  be  handled  gingerly. 
He  said,  playfully  of  course,  that  the  Meta- 
physical Society,  which  met  in  Red  Lion 
Square,  Holborn,  was  afraid  to  ask  him  to 
become  a  member  —  he  might  have  been  such 
a  firebrand!  Gladstone,  Martineau,  the  Duke 
of  Argyll,  Tennyson,  Ruskin,  Dr.  W.  G.  Ward, 
Father  Dalgairns,  and  Cardinal  Manning  were 
[82J 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

members,  and  Huxley  joined  them  later,  prov- 
ing by  his  conduct  that  the  gladiator  may  still 
be  a  perfect  gentleman.  Even  so,  he  could  not 
forego  a  parting  shot  when  the  Society  sus- 
pended its  meetings.  "It  died  of  too  much 
love, "  was  his  wicked  epitaph. 

VIII 

This  abounding  sense  of  humor  and  biting 
sarcasm  aided  him  when  confronted  with  blind 
and  foolish  objections.  On  one  occasion  a  rash 
cleric,  who  had  only  a  meager  acquaintance 
with  natural  history,  attacked  Darwinism  with 
the  enthusiasm  of  ignorance,  and  indulged  in 
considerable  merriment  at  Huxley's  expense. 
Huxley  made  no  reply  whatever,  whereupon 
the  jocose  author  called  his  attention  to  the 
articles,  and  mockingly  requested  advice  on  the 
study  of  the  questions  involved.  The  pro- 
fessor's answer,  probably  written  on  a  post- 
card, was  all-sufficient:  "Take  a  cockroach 
and  dissect  it."  Yet  his  humor  could  be  genial 
as  well  as  satirical.  At  the  end  of  one  of  his 
lectures  he  inquired  if  the  students  understood 
all  he  had  been  saying.  One  replied,  "All, 
sir,  save  one  part,  during  which  you  stood 
between  me  and  the  blackboard."  "All,"  re- 
joined Huxley,  "I  did  my  best  to  make  myself 
clear,  but  could  not  make  myself  transparent." 
On  one  occasion,  after  a  meeting  of  the  trustees 
[83] 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

of  the  British  Museum,  Archbishop  Benson 
helped  Huxley  on  with  his  coat;  and  the  Pro- 
fessor, in  recounting  the  incident,  said,  "I  felt 
quite  overcome  by  this  species  of  spiritual  inves- 
titure." "Thank  you,  Archbishop,"  he  re- 
marked; "I  feel  as  if  I  were  receiving  the 
'pallium.'"  ^  St.  George  Mivart  in  his  Remi- 
niscences^ says  that  one  evening  after  dinner,  at 
which  Huxley  sat  on  his  right  hand,  he  turned 
to  him  for  support  on  behalf  of  a  plea  for 
toleration.  Huxley  replied  "No.  I  think  vice 
and  error  should  be  extirpated  by  force  if  it 
could  be  done."  Mivart  was  surprised,  and 
said,  "Then  you  rehabilitate  Torquemada  and 
others .f^"  To  which  came  the  retort,  "I  think 
they  were  quite  right  in  principle;  they  injured 
it  by  the  way  they  carried  it  out."  "But, 
surely,"  replied  Mivart,  "burning  is  a  strong 
measure?"  "Yes,"  said  Huxley,  "especially 
the  smell.'' 

On  Ward's  first  introduction  to  Huxley  he 
expected  to  meet  an  irascible  individual,  a  pedant, 
and  a  scoffer;  instead,  he  found  a  personality  of 
singular  charm.  External  gifts  of  manner  and 
presence,  and  powers  of  general  conversation 
which  would  have  ensured  popularity  to  any 
mere  man  of  the  world,  were  combined  with 
those  higher  endowments,  and  great  breadth  of 
culture,  to  none  but   an  extraordinary  person 

^Ninrtrnith  Century.  Vol  XL,  p.  281. 
"^Ihid,  Vol.  XLII.  p.  995. 

[84  1 


Thomas  Henry    Huxley 

could  lay  claim. ^  According  to  the  same  writer 
the  elements  of  gentleness  and  sympathy,  which 
gave  so  much  charm  to  his  singular  brilliancy, 
had  become  more  noticeable  in  his  later  life. 
It  is  regrettable  that  Carlyle,  the  intellectual 
hero  of  Huxley's  youth,  and  his  friend  in  after 
years,  is  the  only  man  who  has  the  question- 
able distinction  of  having  refused  Huxley  the 
offer  of  renewed  friendship  following  upon  a 
quarrel  about  natural  selection.  Quite  a  long 
time  had  elapsed  since  they  met;  but  one  day 
Huxley  saw  Carlyle  crossing  a  London  street, 
and  at  once  rushed  toward  him  for  a  handshake 
and  a  friendly  word.  The  old  man  looked  at 
him,  and  remarked,  "  You're  Huxley,  aren'tyou.'^ 
The  man  that  says  we  are  all  descended  from 
monkeys,"  and  turned  and  walked  away.^  Our 
sympathies  are  not  with  Carlyle,  who  failed  in 
his  attempt  to  raise  boorishness  to  the  rank  of 
a  virtue. 

IX 

Huxley  is  sometimes  referred  to  as  a  material- 
ist; but  this,  as  we  have  seen,  is  incorrect,  and 
he  went  to  great  pains  explicitly  to  deny  the 
charge.  He  says  himself,  in  Science  and 
Morals,  that  "physical  science  is  as  little 
atheistic  as  it  is  materialistic."  The  late 
"Warden  of  Merton  College  affirms  that,  "with 
all  his  apparent  leanings  to  materialism,  and 

^  Aiueteciith  Crnturi/,  Vol.  XLI,  pp.  274-278. 

^Life  and  Letters  of  Thomas  H.  Huxley,  Vol.  I,  p.  297. 

[85  1 


Thomas  Henry  Huxley 

vigorous  avoidance  of  sentiment  in  reasoning, 
he  inherited  and  cultivated  the  gift  of  philo- 
sophical imagination."  He  chose  and  pursued 
that  perilous  path  which  leads  upward  from 
ascertained  facts  into  the  sublimer  regions  of 
speculation.  Here  he  remained  enveloped  in 
the  mists  of  agnosticism,  because  he  held  that, 
for  the  improver  of  natural  knowledge,  skep- 
ticism is  a  duty  and  blind  faith  an  unpardonable 
sin.  For  him  doubt  was  better  than  credulity  so 
long  as  he  was  pushing  on  to  truth.  The  Cartesian 
philosophy  helped  to  bring  about  this  conserva- 
tion of  uncertainty.  "Give  unqualified  assent 
to  no  propositions  but  those  the  truth  of  which 
is  so  clear  and  distinct  that  they  cannot  be 
doubted."  ^  This  for  Huxley  was  the  first  great 
commandment  of  science.  But  he  adds  that  it 
was  that  sort  of  doubt  which  Goethe  called 
"the  active  skepticism,"  whose  sole  aim  is  to 
conquer  itself,  and  not  that  other  sort  the  object 
of  which  is  only  to  perpetuate  itself  as  an  excuse 
for  idleness  and  indifference.  Unfortunately 
Huxley  never  conquered  his  doubt.  No  shin- 
ing sun  arose  on  his  agnostic  horizon;  but  there 
were  ever  and  anon  adumbrations  and  a  mel- 
lowing twilight,  a  twilight  not  without  hints 
of  coming  morn. 

After  forty  years  of  indefatigable  toil,  Huxley 
retired  to  his  home  at  Eastbourne  on  the  cliffs 
of  England's  southern  coasts,  still  to  breast  the 

^  Huxley's  Collected  Essays.     Vol.  I,  p.  1G9. 
[86  1 


T'h  om  a  s  Henry  Huxley 

storms  and  enjoy  the  love  and  confidence  of 
friends  and  foes,  who,  however  much  they 
agreed  with  or  differed  from  him,  gave  him 
their  united  and  hearty  esteem.  He  died  on 
June  29,  1895.  His  gravestone  bears  three  sig- 
nificant and  touching  Hues  written  by  his  wife: 

"Be  not  afraid,  ye  waiting  hearts  that  weep; 
For  still  He  giveth  His  beloved  sleep : 
And  if  an  endless  sleep  He  wills,  so  best." 

This  is  beautiful  resignation;  but  we  believe 
that  "He  who  giveth  His  beloved  sleep"  will 
assign  to  him  eternal  rest  from  earthly  mis- 
giving and  fear,  and  also  an  appropriate  sphere 
of  future  activity.  Surely  an  existence  so  nobly 
filled  with  higher  forms  of  human  effort  cannot 
be  doomed  to  the  extinction  of  endless  sleep! 
We  think  of  Thomas  Huxley  still  urging  for- 
ward his  undaunted  way  in  pursuit  of  truth 
where  truth  is  found  in  all  its  splendor  and  har- 
mony.    Thus  thinking,  we  can  affirm: 

"Doubtless  unto  thee  is  given 

A  life  that  bears  immortal  fruit 
In  those  great  offices  that  suit 
The  full-grown  energies  of  heaven."  ^ 

^Tennyson's  In  Memoriam,  XL. 


87 


THIRD    LECTURE 
JOHN  STUART  MILL 


"Laws  should  be  adapted  to  those  who  have  the 
heaviest  stake  in  the  country;  for  ichom  government 
means,  not  mortified  pride  or  stinted  luxury,  hut  want 
and  pain  and  degradation  and  risk  to  their  own  lives 
and  to  their  children's  souls." 

Lord  Acton. 


JOHN  STUART  MILL 

THE  period  covered  by  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  and  the  opening  years  of 
the  nineteenth  centuries  was  remarkable  for  the 
impetus  given  to  society  by  new  forces,  new 
ideas,  and  new  conceptions  of  life.  Words- 
worth, then  a  youth  of  nineteen,  was  swept 
into  the  vortex;  and  in  later  times,  notwith- 
standing his  growing  conservatism,  he  refers  to 
the  stirring  and  eventful  epoch  in  the  familiar 
lines  of  the  Excursion : 

"Bliss  was  it  in  that  dawn  to  be  alive, 
But  to  be  young  was  very  heaven." 

The  mighty  deeps  were  broken  up,  and  flood- 
tides  of  emotion  bore  forward  on  their  crest 
every  kind  of  talent  and  genius  in  human 
affairs.  The  shock  of  this  huge  disturbance 
had  scarcely  died  away,  when  there  appeared 
a  series  of  prophets,  poets,  teachers,  reformers, 
and  statesmen  whose  main  burden  was  the 
reconstruction  of  the  social  order.  The  Roman 
Church  resumed  its  plea  for  reactionary  and 
traditional  o])inions.  The  sons  of  the  new  lib- 
eralism urged  tlie  same  reconciliation  of  forces, 
but  demanded  that  it  rest  on  the  basis  of  rad- 
ical reform.  The  defenders  of  hereditary  rank 
and  aristocratic  privilege  preserved,  as  best 
[911 


John   Stuart   Mill 

they  could,  the  remnant  of  their  feudal  tenure. 
While  France  was  the  center  from  which  the 
conflict  waged,  it  extended  throughout  Europe 
and  North  America. 

John  Stuart  Mill  was  essentially  a  son  of  this 
movement,  and  his  life  and  work  are  best  ex- 
amined, at  least  in  their  initial  stages,  in  the 
light  of  his  affinities  with  the  thinkers  of  the 
time.  Frederic  Harrison  describes  him  as 
"the  systematic  product  of  a  singularly  system- 
atic school  of  philosophers";^  and,  so  far  as  his 
British  intellectual  ancestry  is  concerned,  the 
description  is  correct.  He  imbibed  the  teach- 
ing of  John  Locke  and  David  Hume,  who, 
more  than  any  other  men,  dispelled  from  the 
world  of  English  thought  the  soml)er  shadow 
cast  upon  it  by  the  melancholy  tendencies  of 
Puritanism.  He  stood  midway  between  the 
Benthamite  and  Spencerian  types  of  philosophy, 
and  was  their  most  important  link  of  connec- 
tion. He  insisted  on  a  logical  deduction  from 
observation  and  experiment,  and  challenged  all 
social  and  political  theories  which  could  not 
justify  themselves  in  the  forum  of  reason. 
Whether  for  good  or  ill,  his  work  betrays  a 
unique  blending  of  French  and  English  ideas, 
and  Walter  Bagehot  deems  this  combination 
Mill's  great  merit  as  a  writer.  In  his  logic, 
theories  which  before  were  widely  apart,  are 
found  in  juxtaposition;  and  thirteen  are  named 

^  Tennyson,  Ruakin,  and  Mill,  p.  272. 
[921 


John   Stuart  Mill 

in  the  same  sentence  where  one  could  hardly 
have  comprehended  their  being  coupled  to- 
gether. The  ancient  and  modern  methods  of 
scholastic  or  scientific  inference  were  never 
before  set  so  completely  side  by  side,  nor 
made  so  fully  to  illustrate  one  another.  Such 
a  task  requires  the  delicate  shades  of  expository 
art,  and  for  this  Mill  was  equipped  by  both 
gifts  and  culture.  He  inherited  a  philosoph- 
ical acumen  from  his  father,  and  his  residence 
in  France  had  imparted  the  art  of  precise  and 
graceful  explanation.  He  seems  to  have  been 
a  compound  of  Bentham  and  Auguste  Comte. 
In  him  the  argumentation  and  sterling  sense  of 
the  former  were  quickened  and  illumined  by 
the  idealism  of  the  latter. 


The  family  of  Mill  came  originally  from  the 
slopes  of  the  Perthshire  Grampians,  a  region 
noted  for  the  growth  of  keen  thinkers  and 
ardent  disputants.  His  father,  James  Mill, 
received  the  best  education  his  frugal  parents 
could  procure  and  Scotland  could  offer.  After 
graduating  at  Montrose  Academy  the  elder  Mill 
became  a  tutor  in  a  private  family,  and  moved 
with  the  household  to  Edinburgh,  where  he 
entered  upon  a  course  of  study  at  the  Univer- 
sity. Among  the  friends  he  found  there  were 
John  Leyden,  David  Brewster,  and  Lord 
Brougham.  At  the  age  of  twenty-nine  he  be- 
[93] 


John   Stuart  Mill 

gan  his  well-known  literary  career  in  London. 
Here  he  underwent  severe  struggles  and  hard- 
ships, which  were  finally  relieved  by  his  appoint- 
ment to  the  East  India  Company's  service  in 
that  city,  an  office  in  which  both  he  and  his 
son  spent  their  professional  lives.  When 
thirty-one  he  married  Harriet  Burrow,  a  lady  of 
generous  nature  and  refined  tastes.  The  union 
was  not  a  particularly  happy  one.  Mrs.  Mill 
was  unsuited  for  his  exacting  intellectual  dis- 
position, and  her  husband  was  too  absorbed  in 
his  philosophical  and  literary  pursuits  properly 
to  discharge  the  duties  of  domestic  life.  Their 
eldest  child,  John  Stuart,  was  bom  on  May  20, 
1806.  From  infancy  he  was  subjected  to  a  care- 
fully prepared  and  rigorous  curriculum,  every 
detail  of  which  was  predetermined,  and  the  goal 
as  carefully  defined.  The  father  never  spared 
himself,  and  he  had  no  notion  of  sparing  others. 
His  austerities  were  only  ameliorated  by  the 
largeness  of  his  public  views,  and  his  repressed, 
but  undoubted  sympathy  with  the  causes  which 
made  for  social  betterment.  He  held  the  doc- 
trine that  a  sound  organization  would  banish 
evils  from  the  State,  and  that  a  thorough  sys- 
tem of  education  would  do  the  same  for  the 
individual.  He  displayed  no  enthusiasm  in 
those  stoical  ambitions ;  in  his  opinion,  once 
the  freshness  of  youth  and  satisfied  curiosity 
had  subsided,  "human  life  was  a  poor  thing  at 
best."  Passion  and  emotion  were  regarded  by 
[9-11 


John  Stuart  M ill 

him  as  forms  of  madness,  and  the  intense  was  a 
byword  of  scorn.  He  advocated  the  restriction 
of  the  private  affections  and  the  expansion 
of  altruistic  zeal  to  the  utmost.  He  accepted 
the  dicta  of  his  cult,  that  men  are  born  alike, 
and  that  every  child's  mind  is  a  tabula  rasa 
on  which  experience  registers  its  impressions. 
In  harmony  with  this  conception,  education 
was,  of  course,  the  formative  factor  in  deter- 
mining life  and  shaping  character.  It  should 
begin  with  the  dawn  of  consciousness,  and 
be  prosecuted  without  stint.  How  absolutely 
James  Mill  endorsed  these  views  is  evident 
from  the  methods  he  adopted  in  training  his 
eldest  son. 

There  have  been  few  more  pathetic  juvenile 
histories  than  that  of  John  Stuart  Mill.  The 
story  is  a  strange  one;  and  were  it  not  so  well 
substantiated,  doubts  as  to  its  accuracy  would 
be  legitimate.  It  has  been  received  with  feel- 
ings of  amazement,  mingled  with  those  of  sym- 
pathy and  indignation.  Despite  the  fact  that 
his  temperament  was  highly  emotional  and  even 
religiously  inclined,  he  was  early  compelled  to 
face  life  from  the  purely  intellectual  standpoint. 
Before  he  was  sufficiently  mature  to  register  a 
protest,  his  father  forced  him  outside  the  pale 
of  all  sentiment,  and  charged  him  with  the  inso- 
lence of  a  philosophical  system  which  had  no 
limitations.  Such  hard  and  metallic  treatment 
robbed  the  son  of  any  opportunity  to  develop 
[95] 


John   Stuart  Mill 

and  understand  the  romantic  side  of  his  nature. 
Many  of  the  sorrows  that  beset  his  career  can 
be  traced  to  this  well-nigh  unpardonable  error. 
He  tells  us  in  his  autobiography  that  when  he 
was  two  years  old  he  was  able  to  read;  at  three 
he  commenced  Greek;  at  seven  he  had  gone 
through  the  whole  of  Herodotus,  Xenophon's 
Cyrop(jedeia,  the  memorials  of  Socrates,  part  of 
Lucian,  and  some  of  the  lives  of  the  philoso- 
phers by  Diogenes  Laertius;  at  eight  he  knew 
the  first  six  Dialogues  of  Plato.  In  addition  to 
these  classics,  studied  in  the  original,  he  w^as 
made  to  extend  his  course  to  the  English  his- 
torians and  essayists,  a  knowledge  of  whom 
was  held  necessary  to  the  completion  of  the 
astounding  scheme.  Robertson,  Hume,  Millar, 
Mosheim,  M'Crie,  and  Sewell  were  read  by 
this  child  before  he  had  reached  his  tenth  year. 
Macaulay's  phenomenal  precociousness  was 
altogether  outdone.  Even  so,  his  father  was 
still  dissatisfied,  and  thrust  upon  him  further 
labors  which  were  simply  impossible.  In  our 
day,  when  the  discipline  of  youth  has  been  con- 
siderably relaxed,  the  prodigious  achievements 
of  young  Mill  may  well  appear  incredible;  but 
Professor  Bain  assures  us  that  the  amount  of 
work  done  has  been  underestimated.  At  eight 
he  was  appointed  schoolmaster  to  the  younger 
members  of  the  family,  a  post  which  he  states 
was  more  educative  to  his  mind  than  helpful  to 
his  manners.  The  Draconian  father  applied 
[961 


John   Stuart  Mill 

his  theories  to  the  httle  Mills  who  were  just 
out  of  the  cradle,  and  vicariously  operated  upon 
them  through  the  monitorship  of  their  eldest 
brother.  It  is  not  an  attractive  picture;  and  to 
add  to  its  painfulness,  Jeremy  Bentham  offered 
his  services  in  carrying  out  the  scheme  so  far  as 
John  Stuart  was  concerned.  He  pledged  him- 
self to  see  it  through  "by  whipping  or  other- 
wise." To  this  the  elder  Mill  replied,  "I  take 
your  offer  seriously,  and  we  may  perhaps  leave 
him  a  worthy  successor  of  us  both."  They  do 
not  appear  to  have  regarded  the  child  as  a 
human  being  at  all;  but  as  a  living  peg  on  which 
to  hang  their  system  of  education  and  exhibit  its 
advantages  to  posterity.  The  differential  cal- 
culus and  other  branches  of  the  higher  mathe- 
matics were  assigned  him  before  he  was  thirteen. 
Geometry,  algebra,  logic,  Latin,  treatises  on 
scholasticism,  and  the  study  of  the  Org  anon 
were  included  in  the  same  period.  He  observed 
later  that  he  profited  little  by  the  Posterior 
Analytics.  Certainly  loss  was  mingled  with 
gain  in  this  varied  and  astonishing  program; 
but  it  was  ruthlessly  pushed  forward,  regardless 
of  future  mischief.  Strangely  enough  young 
Mill  was  not  so  unhappy  in  all  this  as  might  be 
supposed.  He  became  accustomed  to  his  cap- 
tivity; his  daily  walks  with  his  father,  during 
which  they  discussed  political  economy,  were 
more  or  less  anticipated.  These  peripatetic 
discourses  had  to  be  reproduced  in  written 
[971 


John   S  iu  art  Mill 

form  on  the  following  morning.  A  high  stand- 
ard of  clearness  and  correctness  was  enforced, 
and  the  results  were  palpable  in  those  literary 
talents  which  were  most  useful  to  one  who 
became  so  comprehensive  a  philosopher.  He 
acquired  habits  which  were  much  strength- 
ened in  after  life,  and  especially  during  his 
association  with  the  youthful  propagandists  of 
the  Utilitarian  Society.  These  habits  were 
"never  to  accept  half  solutions  of  difficulties  as 
complete;  never  to  abandon  a  puzzling  ques- 
tion, but  to  return  to  it  again  and  again,  until 
it  was  manifest;  never  to  allow  obscure  corners 
of  a  debated  issue  to  remain  unexplored  be- 
cause they  did  not  appear  important;  never  to 
think  he  understood  any  part  of  a  subject 
unless  he  understood  the  whole." ^ 

Whatever  the  youth's  feelings  were,  his  en- 
durance was  beyond  praise,  and  there  is  no  hint 
that  he  faltered  while  passing  through  this 
premature  forging  process.  He  brought  to  it  a 
splendid  physique,  a  resolute  will,  and  an  awe 
of  his  father  which  made  him  obedient  to  his 
lightest  word.  He  was  encouraged  by  the  ex- 
ample of  those  strong  and  wholesome  charac- 
ters which  had  overcome  formidable  obstacles. 
This  acquiescence,  with  the  general  plan  for  his 
advancement,  profoundlj^  influenced  his  after- 
life. His  mind  was  disciplined,  if  not  to  per- 
fection, certainly  to  a  high  range  of  efficiency. 

*  Autobiography,  p.  1^3. 
[98  1 


John   Stuart  Mill 

And  while  many  thinkers  and  several  of  his 
contemporaries  were  more  eminent  for  original- 
ity and  constructive  talent,  none  surpassed 
Mill  in  the  amplitude  of  his  general  knowledge, 
the  diversity  and  scope  of  his  intellectual  pur- 
suits, and  his  invaluable  faculty  for  fusing  to- 
gether rich  but  fragmentary  phases  of  thought. 
He  understood,  as"*  few  did,  the  importance  of 
evidence,  and  developed  those  gifts  of  concen- 
tration which  made  him  a  mental  analyst  of  the 
first  order.  A  laudable  and  sincere  ambition 
was  kindled  in  him  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of 
men  who  had  consecrated  themselves  to  the 
public  good.  These  were  valuable  acquisitions, 
and,  on  the  whole,  it  seems  probable  that  the 
interminable  round  of  study  and  effort  was  well 
adapted  to  his  capacities. 

In  his  fifteenth  year  he  won  a  brief  respite, 
which  was  spent  in  the  south  of  France.  Freed 
from  his  father's  overweening  presence,  sur- 
rounded by  congenial  society  and  in  full  view  of 
the  impressive  scenery  of  the  Pyrenees,  it  was 
here  he  felt  the  first  warm  rays  which  thawed  his 
glacial  youth.  His  subsequent  familiarity  with 
the  French  thought  and  language  was  the  best 
outcome  of  this  sojourn  abroad.  If  he  caught 
a  little,  though  only  a  little,  of  the  tendency  to 
diffuseness  of  the  French  philosophers,  he  also 
gained  their  translucent  style  and  wonderful 
readability.  Before  he  returned  to  England, 
in  1821,  he  added  zoology,  chemistry,  botany, 
f99f 


John   Stuart  Mill 

and  metaphysics  to  the  list  of  his  acquirements, 
and  found  recreation  in  music  and  dancing.  In 
1823  he  entered  the  service  of  the  East  India 
Company,  where  his  duties,  though  onerous, 
were  not  allowed  to  interfere  with  his  literary 
work.  The  reading  of  Dumont's  interpreta- 
tion of  Benthamism  in  the  Traite  de  Legislation 
effected  an  astounding  change  in  Mill's  outlook 
on  life.  He  laid  down  the  last  volume  with  the 
feeling  that  he  was  literally  "converted."  "I 
now  had  opinions,"  he  cried,  "a  creed,  a  doc- 
trine, a  philosophy;  in  one  among  the  best 
senses  of  the  word,  a  religion;  the  inculcation 
and  diffusion  of  which  could  be  made  the  prin- 
cipal outward  purpose  of  a  life.  And  I  had  a 
grand  conception  laid  before  me  of  changes  to 
be  effected  in  the  condition  of  mankind  through 
that  doctrine."^  To  those  who  have  regarded 
Mill  as  a  cold  and  calculating  rationalist,  this 
spontaneous  confession  may  be  surprising. 
But  if  we  reflect  on  the  abnormalities  that  have 
been  depicted,  was  it  not  to  be  expected.'*  Here 
was  a  very  young  man  excessively  nurtured  in 
intellect  and  starved  in  emotion,  who  had  sud- 
denly found  mental  and  moral  employment  for 
his  neglected  sympathies.  He  preached  imme- 
diately his  radiant  gospel  of  the  greatest  hap- 
piness of  the  greatest  number.  With  all  the 
ardor  of  a  regenerate  he  turned  to  find  others 
of  a  like  persuasion.     The  Utilitarian  Society 

^  Autobiography,  p.  67. 

[100  1 


John   Stuart  Mill 

was  founded  to  embody  these  purposes;  it 
consisted  of  young  men  more  or  less  acquainted 
with  Bentham,  and  who  therefore  might  be  the 
more  readily  imbued  with  the  spirit  and  aims 
of  his  teaching.  To  many  of  these,  both  then 
and  afterward,  Mill  was  not  so  mucli  a  thinker 
or  a  political  economist,  as  a  prophet.  "He 
had  rare  power  of  arguing  and  analyzing";  but 
what  is  still  more  uncommon,  he  had  "an 
equally  rare  kind  of  contagious  enthusiasm, 
which  influenced  a  multitude  of  minds,  and 
made  them  believe  as  he  did."^ 

From  the  period  of  this  awakening  can  be 
dated  his  productive  work.  After  a  prolonged 
course  of  reading  he  began  to  contribute  to 
the  Traveller,  the  Chronicle,  the  Westminster 
Review,  and  other  organs  of  philosophical  radi- 
calism, and  in  1825  he  edited  Bentham's  work 
on  Evidence.  These  preliminary  ventures  in 
authorship  considerably  improved  his  style. 
He  showed  that  microscopic  ability  which 
detects  the  minutest  breach  or  incoherence  in 
the  tissue  of  opposed  reasoning,  and  also  a 
clear  conception  of  what  he  himself  meant  to 
convey.  His  attitude  impresses  the  reader  as 
earnest  and  convinced,  and  withal  gentle  and 
modest.  But  this  halcyon  state  was  soon  dis- 
turbed. He  began  to  drift  from  the  certainty 
of  his  beliefs,  and  in  the  autumn  of  1826  a 
painful  reaction  followed  on  his  new-found  yet 

1  Bagehot's  Essay  on  Mill  (Works,  Vol.  V,  p.  417). 
flOll 


John  Stuart  Mill 

short-lived  joy.  His  mutilated  childhood,  com. 
bined  with  his  sanguine  attempt  to  establish 
reason  as  the  sole  guide  of  life,  thus  effecting  a 
social  and  economic  revolution,  were  revenged 
by  a  series  of  dark  and  depressing  experiences 
which  well-nigh  overwhelmed  him.  Psycholog- 
ically they  indicated  the  backward  swing  of 
the  pendulum  from  his  untimely  zeal.  Actually 
they  centered  around  certain  abnormal  obses- 
sions which  distract  the  disappointed  and  dis- 
enchanted spirits  whose  ideals  have  melted 
into  thin  air.  He  vexed  himself  over  the  pos- 
sible exhaustibility  of  musical  combinations, 
and  when  rid  of  this  annoyance  suffered  from 
others  equally  futile  and  wearying.  Then 
came  defiance  against  the  gods  in  whose  ser- 
vice he  had  been  commandeered.  Sudden  mis- 
givings and  agonizing  doubts  flashed  upon  him, 
which  he  compares  to  a  Methodist  "conviction 
of  sin."  His  implicit  and  complacent  trust  in 
his  philosophical  evangel  was  rudely  shattered, 
and  his  mission  to  upraise  a  world  of  which 
he  was  woefully  ignorant  was  abandoned  in 
despair.  For  an  interval  everything  on  which 
he  had  depended  tottered  and  seemed  about 
to  fall.  He  deeply  realized  that,  if  all  his  objects 
in  life  could  be  attained  at  that  moment,  the 
result  would  give  him  no  lasting  satisfaction. 
He  says  with  melancholy  emphasis,  "At  this 
my  heart  sank  within  me;  the  whole  foundation 
on  which  my  life  was  constructed  fell  down. 
[102  1 


John   Stuart  M  ill 

All  my  happiness  was  to  have  been  found  in  the 
continual  pursuit  of  this  end.  The  end  had 
ceased  to  charm;  and  how  could  there  ever 
again  be  an  interest  in  the  means?  I  seemed 
to  have  nothing  left  to  live  for."  These  gloomy 
reflections  prostrated  him.  He  quotes  Cole- 
ridge's lines  from  Dejection  as  exactly  describ- 
ing his  case: 

"A  grief  without  a  pang,  void,  dark  and  drear, 
A  drowsy,  stifled,  unimpassioned  grief. 
Which  finds  no  natural  outlet  or  relief 
In  word,  or  sigh,  or  tear."  ^ 

Some  one  has  compared  Condorcet  to  a  vol- 
cano covered  with  snow.  To  a  certain  extent 
the  comparison  holds  true  of  Mill;  and  this  was 
the  first  eruption,  to  be  followed  by  others  even 
more  destructive.  The  ill-regulated  fires  be- 
neath at  last  blazed  forth  in  unexpected  and 
disastrous  ways.  What  availed  his  father's 
regimen  and  the  bold  and  heartless  efforts  to 
stifle  in  him  the  higher  qualities  of  humanity .^^ 
The  unhappy  sequel  could  scarcely  have  been 
other  than  it  was ;  we  may  perhaps  repress 
ourselves,  but  no  one  else  can  attempt  it  with 
impunity.  He  recovered  himself  by  reading 
Marmontel's  Memoires;  and  a  little  later  the 
poetry  of  Wordsworth  came  to  him  with  the 
strength  and  comfort  of  a  revelation.  Over 
the  first  book  he  shed  tears,  it  gave  fluidity  to 

1  Autobiography,  p.  13-1. 
[103  1 


John  Stuart  M ill 

the  deeper  feelings  of  his  soul ;  while  the  second 
showed  him  the  place  which  feeling  occupies, 
not  only  in  the  social  relationships,  but  as  a 
guide  to  the  understanding  of  the  human  heart. 
He  now  saw  that  pleasure  did  not  depend  on 
an  opposition  of  interests  between  men.  The 
static  theory  of  a  limited  amount  of  happiness 
was  not  in  harmony  with  the  facts  of  life,  since 
one  man's  pleasures  do  not  necessarily  interfere 
with  those  of  another.  This  was  an  important 
moment  in  his  life  —  the  moment  when  he  real- 
ized, by  Wordsworth's  aid,  that  independent 
yet  real  pleasure  is  afforded  by  the  contempla- 
tion of  nature  and  of  the  heart  of  man.  He 
began  to  live  the  life  of  emotion,  and,  treading 
this  unaccustomed  road,  for  which  he  had  re- 
ceived so  little  preparation,  it  is  not  astonish- 
ing that  he  fell  into  a  snare. 

His  introduction  to  the  well-kno\vTi  Mrs. 
Taylor  resulted  in  an  intimacy  which  separated 
INIill  from  his  highest  self,  and  caused  division 
in  his  family  as  well  as  anxiety  to  his  friends. 
Despite  continued  remonstrance  he  persisted  in 
this  detrimental  compact.  The  Nemesis  which 
followed  so  indiscreet  an  episode  exacted  a 
heavy  toll  from  the  man,  his  work,  and  his 
influence.  After  twenty  years  the  death  of 
the  forbearing  husband  left  his  widow  free  to 
marry  her  admirer.  But  the  bitterest  conse- 
quences were  destined  to  fall  upon  Mill's  patient 
and  long-suffering  mother,  whom  he  does  not 
[104  1 


John   Stuart  Mill 

once  mention  in  his  autobiography.  He  dis- 
played toward  this  unfortunate  lady  and  her 
children  an  implacable  spirit  of  retaliation  for 
their  supposed  neglect  of  his  belated  bride, 
and  on  his  part  arose  an  immovable  reserve 
which  he  never  relaxed.  This  deplorable  aver- 
sion destroyed  the  peace  of  the  domestic  circle 
in  which  he  had  been  an  affectionate  son  and  an 
open-handed  brother.  Miss  Taylor,  the  grand- 
daughter of  Mrs.  Taylor,  has  urged  all  that  can 
be  said  on  behalf  of  Mill  and  his  wife.  She 
naturally  is  anxious  to  vindicate  his  conduct; 
but  candor  compels  her  to  admit  that  "Mill's 
letters  to  his  own  family  are,  too  many  of  them, 
painful,  though  strangely  interesting,  reading. 
He  cannot,  by  the  most  wounding  reproaches, 
shake  their  faith  in  him  as  a  'great  and  good 
man.'  He  seems  to  endeavor  to  do  this,  but 
fails.  They  recognize  that  he  is  cruel  and  in- 
sulting to  them,  and  they  suffer  acutely;  but 
their  affection  is  as  invincible  as  his  resentment. 
It  is  wonderful  to  see  a  whole  family  thus  lov- 
ing and  enduring.  Not  one  bitter  word  is 
flung  back  to  him.  One  sees  that  he  reigns 
in  all  their  hearts.  A  marvel  of  cruelty; 
yet  how  deep  and  rich  must  the  nature  be 
that  can  so  reign  in  spite  of  all !  As  one 
reads  one  feels  less  anger  with  him  than  deep 
love  and  admiration  for  those  brave  women 
who  seem  to  consider  in  each  scornful  word 
only  the  wound  from  which  it  springs,  and 
[105] 


John   Stuart  Mill 

which  they  perpetually  seek  to  find  and 
heal."i 

The  views  of  two  eminent  critics,  belonging 
to  widely  different  schools,  may  be  cited  here. 
Lord  Morley  described  Mill  years  ago  as  "true 
to  his  professions,  tolerant,  liberal,  unselfish, 
single-minded,  high,  and  strenuous." ^  Sir  Wil- 
liam Robertson  Nicoll,  in  a  recent  review  of 
Mill's  Letters  in  the  British  Weekly,  affirms  that, 
while  there  was  nothing  technically  immoral  in 
the  Taylor  incident,  "it  was  selfishness  in  its 
purest  or  impurest  form,  it  turns  many  of 
Mill's  books  to  folly  .  .  .  and  was  a  sad  and 
sorry  entanglement."  Morley's  eulogy  is  too  sil- 
very; but  it  may  be  subjected  to  revision  when 
the  promised  Life  of  Mill  appears.  Certainly 
the  biographer  of  Gladstone  cannot  allow  Miss 
Taylor's  remarks  to  pass  without  notice.  Those 
now  living  who  knew  Mill  personally  dwell  with 
one  accord  on  his  goodness  of  nature  and  devo- 
tion to  the  public  service.  Nor  can  it  be 
doubted  that  for  sagacity  of  mind,  political  and 
social  fervor,  and  substantial  contributions  to 
economic  reforms,  he  will  always  be  rightly 
esteemed. 

Following  the  separation  from  his  family. 
Mill  and  his  wife  withdrew  almost  entirely 
from  society.  They  made  their  home  near 
Avignon,  and  the  death  of  Mrs.  Mill  was  the 

*  Letters  of  John  Stuart  Mill:  Introduction,  Vol.  I,  p.  46. 
2  Miscellanies  (fourth  scries),  p.  146. 

[106  1 


John   Stuart  Mill 

crowning  calamity  which  severed  him  alto- 
gether from  England.  He  dedicated  his  essay 
On  Liberty  to  her  memory,  declaring  that  in 
this,  as  in  many  other  of  his  writings,  she  was 
a  partner  in  their  projection  and  execution. 
After  a  brief  illness  he  died  at  Avignon  on  May 
8,  1873.  His  decease,  which  came  suddenly, 
created  a  deep  sense  of  loss  in  the  intellectual 
life  of  Britain,  France,  and  America.  Few 
thinkers  exercised  more  influence  or  inspired  so 
much  personal  attachment  among  those  who 
formed  the  inner  retinues  of  philosophy  and 
social  betterment.  "A  strong,  pure  light  has 
gone  out,  the  radiance  of  a  clear  vision  and  a 
beneficent  purpose.  We  have  lost  a  great 
teacher  and  example  of  knowledge  and  virtue." 
So  wrote  his  greatest  living  disciple,  and  he  ex- 
pressed the  sentiments  of  a  distinguished  coterie 
of  thinkers  and  literary  masters. 

II 

Mill's  writings  are  not  collections  of  desul- 
tory remarks;  they  are  orderly  and  systematic 
discussions  on  absorbing  themes  which  permit 
no  deviations.  Their  beginnings  have  reference 
to  their  conclusions,  and  almost  every  part 
has  some  relation,  and  frequently  a  close  one, 
to  most  other  parts.  Subjects  like  metaphysics, 
logic,  and  political  economy  will  not  brook  out- 
side interference;  the  whole  time  and  strength 
of  a  thinker  and  a  scholar  must  usually  be  given 
[1071 


John   Stuart  Mill 

to  these  jealous  mistresses.  Yet  Mill  wrote  his 
books  when  he  was  a  laborious  man  of  business 
who  had  difficult  and  exhausting  duties  to  per- 
form. When  the  circumstances  of  their  produc- 
tion are  fully  known,  their  meritorious  character 
is  increased. 

In  his  philosophy  he  defines  matter  as  "the 
permanent  possibility  of  sensation,"  and  mind 
as  the  "permanent  possibility  of  feeling."  The 
so-called  primary  truths  or  innate  ideas  are  only 
habits  of  mind  which  time  and  repetition  have 
rendered  irresistible.  Experience  is  the  sole 
source  of  knowledge,  and  the  mind  derives  its 
entire  fund  of  materials  through  the  senses; 
a  priori  and  intuitive  elements  of  every  kind 
are  absolutely  rejected;  the  mind  contributes 
nothing  out  of  itself  to  the  structure  of  knowl- 
edge. Mill  went  so  far  as  to  deny  the  prin- 
ciple of  contradiction.  We  are  not  even  sure 
that  we  are  not  sure.  When  Hume  con- 
ceded the  necessary  truth  of  the  axioms  of 
Euclid,  Mill  rebelled  against  the  concession, 
and  avowed  that  "there  might  be  another 
planet  in  which  two  and  two  make  five."  Ac- 
cording to  him,  sensations  and  feelings  are  the 
component  parts  of  experience  and  also  the 
units  of  the  mental  life.  "My  mind  is  but  a 
series  of  feelings,"  he  remarks,  "a  thread  of 
consciousness,  however  siij)plemented  by  be- 
lieved possibilities  of  consciousness,  which  are 
not,  though  they  miglit  be  realized."  Empha- 
[1081 


John   Stuart  Mill 

sis  is  laid  on  the  association  of  ideas  by  means 
of  wliich  the  mind  is  furnislicd  with  the  falsely 
teniied  "intuitions"  or  "necessary  truths." 
He  would  not  admit  the  existence  of  a  con- 
scious self  as  a  centrality  in  itself;  the  funda- 
mental ego  was  a  delusion,  and  consisted  of  a 
succession  of  feelings,  and  psychical  states. 
Although  Mill  disliked  the  inference  and  tried 
to  avoid  it,  these  views  were  closely  affiliated 
w^ith  necessitarianism.  "An  act  of  will,"  quot- 
ing from  his  standpoint,  "is  a  moral  effect  which 
follows  the  corresponding  moral  causes  as  cer- 
tainly and  invariably  as  physical  effects  follow 
their  physical  causes."  In  these  statements, 
wliich  cover  Mill's  general  attitude  toward  the 
vital  problems  of  human  existence,  one  cannot 
fail  to  notice  his  assumptions  in  the  use  of  cer- 
tain words  such  as  "background,"  "succession," 
and  the  like.  In  fact,  his  terminology  is  fertile 
in  controversies  because  of  its  looseness,  a  loose- 
ness which  has  been  banished  from  tlie^  more 
critical  philosophies  of  our  own  time. 

Despite  the  qualified  support  of  Spencer  and 
Leslie  Stephen,  this  attack  on  the  integrity  and 
reality  of  mind  as  the  nexus  of  personality  has 
now  largely  spent  its  force.  It  attempted  to 
undermine  the  intelligent  basis  for  experience, 
notwithstanding  that  on  experience  the  Utilita- 
rians rested  their  whole  case.  From  it  alone 
they  endeavored  to  deduce  the  laws  and  neces- 
sities of  the  mental  and  moral  life.  The  process 
[109] 


John  Stuart  Mill 

reminds  one  of  Hogarth's  caricature  of  the  man 
intent  on  sawing  off  his  rival's  sign,  while  he 
himself  is  perched  on  the  outer  edge  oblivious 
of  the  coming  crash.  No  satisfactory  explana- 
tion is  given  of  the  unity  of  consciousness 
which  is  presupposed  in  every  form  of  mental 
activity.  Apart  from  that  unity,  such  self- 
evident  functions  of  mind  as  discrimination 
and  combination  are  altogether  impossible,  and 
the  mind  itself,  reduced  to  a  mere  series  of  feel- 
ings, is  destroyed  as  a  real  agent.  Mill  seems 
to  ignore  the  fact  that  any  rational  experience 
directly  implies  a  conscious  unitary  subject. 
A  further  defect  in  his  system  is  its  leaning 
toward,  if  not  its  direct  association  with,  the 
determinism  to  which  reference  has  already 
been  made.  For  if  cause  and  effect  obtain  in 
the  moral  realm  as  in  the  physical,  a  mortal 
blow  is  given  to  ethical  freedom,  and  personal 
responsibility  is  annulled.  Professor  Sheldon 
has  demonstrated  how  both  Mill  and  Spencer, 
in  their  oscillations  between  materialism  and 
idealism,  have  frequently  been  compelled  to  rec- 
ognize that  personality  the  existence  of  which 
they  sought  to  disprove.  For  an  instance  of 
this,  take  the  admission  of  Mill:  "There  is 
a  bond  of  some  sort  among  all  the  parts  of 
the  series,  .  .  .  and  this  bond  constitutes  my 
ego,"  As  Slieldon  points  out,  the  "bond  of 
some  sort"  is  the  trap-door  wliich  Mill  unwit- 
tingly opened  in  the  floor  of  his  own  philos- 
[110] 


John  Stuart  M ill 

ophy,     through     which     his    principal     tenet 
promptly  disappeared.^ 

The  qualitative  distinction  between  one  form 
of  gratification  and  another  was  a  further  and 
fatal  error  in  the  Utilitarian  system,  and  also  a 
virtual  challenge  of  its  entire  ethical  position. 
For  Bentham  push-pin  was  as  good  as  poetry, 
provided  it  afforded  equal  pleasure.  But  Mill 
could  not  go  so  far  as  this;  he  rated  some 
pleasures  higher  than  others.  Indeed,  the  intel- 
lectual pleasures  made  the  strongest  appeal  to 
him :  it  is  better  to  be  Socrates  dissatisfied 
than  a  fool  satisfied. ^  We  heartily  echo  the 
plea;  but  Mill  could  not  make  it  and  remain 
a  consistent  Utilitarian.  It  requires  a  moral 
sense  to  determine  what  pleasures  are  high  and 
what  are  low,  and  to  differentiate  between  the 
Socratic  and  the  foolish  pursuits.  His  obser- 
vation also  involves  the  displacement  of  pleas- 
ure as  the  standard  and  end  in  itself.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  Paley  was  the  first 
teacher  who  used  the  Utilitarian  philosophy  as 
a  basis  for  Christian  ethics.  His  system  was 
harmful,  and  has  been  rightly  called  "other- 
world  selfishness."  But  while  thoroughly  dis- 
counted by  modern  theologians,  it  still  sways 
the  average  map  to  a  regrettable  extent.  He 
defined  virtue  as  the  doing  of  good  to  mankind 

'  See  Professor  Sheldon's  admirable  work  on  Unbelief  in  the 
Nineteenth  Century. 

^Mill's  Utilitarianism,  pp.  11  ff. 

[Ill] 


John   Stuart  Mill 

in  obedience  to  the  will  of  God  and  for  the 
sake  of  everlasting  happiness.  Thus,  while  virtue 
springs  from  self-seeking,  its  sanction  is  in  the 
will  of  God  allied  with  future  reward  or  punish- 
ment. Utilitarianism  proper  differs  from  Paley- 
ism  on  the  one  question  of  the  sanction.  Its 
ethics  are  never  a  matter  of  obligation,  but  are 
absolutely  governed  by  selfish  and  social  con- 
siderations. Even  the  altruistic  aspects  are 
caused  by  self-love,  and  the  greatest  happiness 
of  the  greatest  number  is  adjusted  to  this  main 
position.  When  Bentham,  who  was  given  to 
generosity,  was  asked  how  in  such  actions  he 
could  be  self -centered,  his  reply  was  that  "he 
was  a  selfish  man  whose  selfishness  happened  to 
take  the  form  of  benevolence."  In  another 
passage  he  says,  "Self-regard  alone  will  serve 
for  diet,  although  sympathy  is  very  good  for 
dessert." 

For  Mill  the  problem  was  more  difficult,  and 
he  was  not  quite  so  assured  on  the  issue.  He 
knew  no  reason  why  the  general  happiness  was 
desirable,  except  that  each  person  desired  his 
own  happiness.  Each  person's  happiness  was  a 
good  to  that  person,  and  the  general  happiness 
a  good  to  tlie  aggregate  of  persons.  Carlyle 
chuckled  over  this  lame  logic,  and  revealed  its 
absurdity  by  a  characteristically  vigorous  anal- 
ogy. "It  is,"  he  says,  "as  if  we  were  to  argue 
that  because  each  pig  desires  for  himself  the 
greatest  amount  of  a  limited  quantity  of  pigs' 
[1121 


John  Stuart  Mill 

wash,  each  necessarily  desires  the  greatest  quan- 
tity for  every  other  and  for  all."  Later  Util- 
itarians, without  any  admiration  for  Carlyle's 
somewhat  uncouth  retort,  have  felt  equally  dis- 
satisfied with  Mill's  reasoning.  They  renounce 
the  dogma  that  personal  pleasure  is  the  one 
desirable  thing,  and  urge  that  we  ought  to  aim 
at  universal  happiness  according  to  reason. 
They  do  not,  however,  sufficiently  explain  the 
authority  of  reason  or  why  we  should  obey  its 
behests.  Leslie  Stephen  toyed  with  the  notion 
that  happiness  is  the  end,  and  that  the  happi- 
ness of  the  individual  and  that  of  others  nor- 
mally coincide;  yet  they  are  different,  and  we 
can  never  be  sure  they  are  one  and  will  follow 
the  same  path.  But  what  if  the  end  is  not  prop- 
erly described  as  happiness  "^  Suppose  it  is 
well-being  or  good.f*  Stephen  himself  suggests 
that  the  connection  between  the  individual  and 
social  good  is  not  sentiment,  but  a  matter  of 
reasoning.  On  the  ground  that  man  is  a  rational 
being,  incapable  of  finding  satisfaction  in  grati- 
fied feeling,  capable  only  of  self-realization  in  a 
common  good,  we  are  justified  in  setting  aside 
all  arguments  based  on  the  comparison  of  pleas- 
ures. Having  done  so  much  as  this,  we  can 
appeal  with  confident  directness  to  man's  sense 
of  duty.  The  emotional  nature  in  men  furnishes 
no  ground  of  authority  for  ethics.  The  rational 
nature  does  so,  and  does  it  in  all  realms.  When 
we  say  to  a  man,  "This  is  right,"  we  cannot 
[1131 


John  Stuart  Mill 

invariably  add,  "This  will  be  for  your  happi- 
ness"; but  we  can  aflSrm,  "It  is  reasonable  and 
obligatory."  It  may  entail  suflFering  and  de- 
privation, yet  it  must  be  obeyed  at  all  hazards. 
Apart  from  his  rational  self,  which  is  essentially 
social,  there  could  be  no  such  obligation,  no 
"thou  shalt"  or  "thou  shalt  not,"  and  no 
morality  as  now  accepted  and  built  upon  by 
civilized  society.  ^  Though  the  English  Utilita- 
rians have  been  discredited  in  their  own  circle, 
this  should  not  blind  us  to  the  wide  acceptance 
of  their  views  by  thoughtless  multitudes  who 
know  no  philosophy,  but  who  eagerly  seize  upon 
hedonistic  teachings  as  an  excuse  for  personal 
advantage  and  self-indulgence.  Utilitarian  doc- 
trines have  received  another  and  less  reputable 
application  in  our  present  revel  of  so-called 
prosperity.  Many  who  never  heard  of  Ben- 
tham,  Hume,  and  the  Mills  make  pleasure  the 
sole  end  of  being ;  and  the  madness  of  this  pur- 
suit has  already  inflicted  widespread  injury  and 
loss  upon  the  American  and  English  peoples. 
Any  creditable  exposition  of  the  fundamental 
weakness  of  this  vaunted  policy  is  a  grateful 
resistance  against  a  prevalent  evil  whose  rav- 
ages must  be  checked  or  our  racial  value  will 
decrease. 

The  age  of  Mill,  as  already  noted,  was  one  of 
intellectual  and  political  unrest,  a  time  of  doubt, 
perplexity,  and  hesitation.     Thinkers  were  prin- 

1  See  Muirhead's  Ethics,  p.  157. 
[114] 


J  0  hn   S  tu  art  M  ill 

cipally  concerned  to  discover  the  meaning  of 
the  moral  code  under  which  they  lived,  and  the 
authority  which  lay  behind  it.  Finding  nothing 
save  contradictions,  the  Benthamites  resolved 
to  begin  afresh,  and  their  unflinching  applica- 
tion of  reason  led  them  to  a  complete  abandon- 
ment of  the  current  ethical  systems.  Thus 
deprived  of  the  assistance  of  the  past,  they  nat- 
urally concentrated  attention  on  themselves  as 
the  one  indisputable  reality.  Here  it  was  they 
met  an  adverse  fate,  because  they  made  a  mis- 
leading and  unworthy  reckoning  of  human 
nature.  This  doomed  them  to  failure,  as  it  has 
also  seriously  damaged  those  theological  sys- 
tems which  have  been  guilty  of  the  same  error. 
Their  ambition  rightly  to  interpret  the  peren- 
nial problem  of  man,  his  meaning  and  purpose 
in  the  world,  was  a  laudable  one;  but  their  low 
and  distorted  notions  concerning  him  thwarted 
its  fulfilment. 

Jeremy  Bentham  gave  his  attention  to  juris- 
prudence, James  Mill  centered  on  psychology, 
John  Stuart  Mill  expounded  a  new  political 
economy.  But  behind  these  efforts  the  be- 
littling estimate  of  their  fellow  creatures  crip- 
pled tlieir  main  enterprises ;  and  while  their 
work  has  borne  fruit  in  many  directions,  it 
warns  us  that  a  dignified  and  sufiicient  doctrine 
of  man's  essential  nobility  must  lie  at  the  foun- 
dation of  all  speculation  or  action  which  proposes 
the  betterment  of  the  race.  They  shared  in  the 
[115] 


John   Stuart  Mill 

practical  drift  of  British  philosophy,  which  bore 
traces  of  the  national  temperament  and  was 
generally  averse  to  any  thinking  that  was 
not  pragmatic  in  its  tendency.  They  rendered 
yeoman  service  by  bringing  man  back  to  him- 
self, and  their  domestic  principles  made  Util- 
itarianism an  effective  instrument  of  political 
reform.  They  assumed  the  equality  of  all  men, 
and  based  their  calculations  upon  that  assump- 
tion. In  nations  dominated  by  caste  and  privi- 
lege, such  a  principle  was  specially  welcome.  It 
was  this  advocacy  of  equal  rights,  and  not  their 
contention  that  the  end  is  pleasure,  which  se- 
cured many  social  and  legislative  advantages. 

In  the  nineteenth  century  the  stream  of 
reforming  thought  was  swollen  by  three  great 
currents  which  flowed  into  it.  These  were  the 
ethical,  the  metaphysical,  and  the  scientific. 
They  arose  at  different  times;  and  in  Germany 
and  France,  as  well  as  in  Britain  and  America, 
they  gave  an  almost  unprecedented  significance 
to  the  era  in  which  they  found  their  confluence. 
The  first  began  in  Sensationalism,  eddied  in 
Utilitarianism,  and  was  swept  forward  by  the 
pressure  of  new  truths  the  other  two  contained. 
James  Mill  and  his  son  gave  ethical  Utilitarian- 
ism its  authoritative  form;  but,  despite  this,  it 
steadily  dwindled,  and,  after  the  death  of  John 
Stuart,  ceased  to  be  a  large  factor  in  individual 
or  social  ethics.  The  system  which  regarded 
the  world  of  humanity  as  an  aggregate  of  de- 
[1161 


John  Stuart  Mill 

tached  units,  a  collection  of  mere  individuals, 
with  nothing  in  common  save  their  natural 
sensuous  necessities,  who  repelled  each  other 
by  their  selfish  greed,  was  an  offense  against 
the  highest  instincts  of  our  being  and  led  to 
naked  naturalism.  Political  economy  sup- 
planted ethics,  psychology  outgeneraled  meta- 
physics, and  religion  wallowed  in  the  slough  of 
self-desire.  Carlyle  sturdily  rebuked  these  de- 
fections. He  testified  to  the  presence  of  God 
in  the  spirit  of  man,  and  looked  upon  this  life 
through  the  transfiguring  light  of  another  and 
a  loftier  world.  Penetrating  the  husk  of  time, 
he  saw  that  eternity  was  here  and  now,  **a 
tranquil  element  underlying  the  heated  antag- 
onisms of  man's  existence."  "This  theory,"  he 
exclaimed,  speaking  of  Utilitarianism,  "should 
make  us  go  on  all  fours  and  lay  no  claim  at  all 
to  the  dignity  of  being  moral."  Within  its  con- 
fines man  had  no  history  as  he  had  no  future,  no 
power  either  of  ascent  or  descent.  He  was 
simply  a  human  animal  glutted  with  present 
demands  and  the  efforts  to  satisfy  them.  It 
presented  no  ideals  which  could  raise  man  above 
his  natural  selfhood  or  lead  him  to  sacrifice  the 
lower  for  the  higher.  He  was  pitiably  reduced 
to  an  object,  a  thing  affected  by  other  things  as 
they  pained  or  pleased  him,  and  acting,  like  any 
other  object,  in  obedience  to  motives  that  had 
an  external  origin  in  the  world  of  sense.  These 
were  the  maunderings  which  provoked  Carlyle 's 
[117] 


John  Stuart  M ill 

ire.  "Is  the  heroic  inspiration  we  name  Virtue 
but  some  Passion;  some  bubble  of  the  blood, 
bubbling  in  the  direction  others  'profit  by?  .  .  . 
If  what  thou  namest  Happiness  be  our  true 
aim,  then  are  we  all  astray.  With  Stupidity 
and  sound  Digestion  man  may  front  much. 
But  what,  in  these  dull  unimaginative  days,  are 
the  terrors  of  Conscience  to  the  diseases  of  the 
Liver !  Not  on  Morality,  but  on  Cookery,  let  us 
build  our  stronghold:  there  brandishing  our 
frying-pan,  as  censer,  let  us  offer  sweet  incense 
to  the  Devil,  and  live  at  ease  on  the  fat  things 
he  has  provided  for  his  Elect! "^ 

In  Germany  Hume's  appeal  to  the  world  of 
the  five  senses  had  long  ceased  to  charm  reflec- 
tive minds.  A  noble  succession  of  poets  and 
philosophers  emulated  one  another  in  brush- 
ing aside  the  conclusions  of  the  empiricists. 
They  demolished  the  Deism  which  encouraged 
notions  of  an  absentee  God,  and  reinvested  His 
universe  with  the  splendors  of  a  spiritual  sig- 
nificance. The  infinite  and  finite  elements  in 
man  and  nature  were  reiterated  by  Kant  and 
Lessing,  Fichte  and  Schiller,  Goethe  and  Hegel. 
Metaphysics  were  reestablished  upon  a  larger 
and  firmer  basis,  psychology  took  a  subordinate 
place,  and  the  entire  creation  was  viewed  by 
them  as  pulsating  with  tlie  mj^stery  and  majesty 
of  endless  life  and  purpose.    In  England  Words- 

1  Carlyle's  Sartor  Resartus,  Chap.  VII,  p.  112,  Edinburgh 
edition. 

[1181 


John   Stuart  Mill 

worth  and  Browning  joined  with  Carlyle  in 
directing  this  cleansing  ideahsm  toward  popu- 
lar channels.  Later  thinkers,  such  as  the 
brothers  Caird  and  T.  H.  Green,  expounded  and 
supplemented  Hegelianism,  imparting  to  it  the 
warmth  and  directness  of  their  own  moral 
enthusiasm.  Lotze's  monumental  achieve- 
ments, which  combine  the  best  features  of  his 
predecessors,  complete  the  history  of  this  second 
current  in  the  stream  of  modern  thought,  to 
which  also  the  kindred  religious  philosophy  of 
James  Martineau  contributed,  coinciding  with 
the  more  cosmic  range  of  the  German  master. 
Again,  the  advent  of  evolution,  with  its 
immense  range  of  biological  facts,  on  which 
Spencer  built  his  synthetic  philosophy,  was 
inimical  to  the  Utilitarian  degradation  of  man. 
The  defects  of  Spencer's  teaching  were  many 
and  obvious,  and  they  have  been  trenchantly 
handled  by  Professor  Bowne.  But  one  thing 
that  teaching  did:  it  showed  conclusively  that 
man  was  not  an  isolated  unit;  that  he  had  a 
princely  inheritance  from  an  interminable  past, 
whose  recesses  were  beyond  discernment,  and 
whose  dauntless  energies  were  concentrated  in 
him.  More  than  this,  an  equally  irresistible 
energy  propelled  him  toward  an  infinite  future 
whose  possibilities  challenged  imagination. 
The  two  organic  ideas  of  evolutionary  philoso- 
phy, which  were  the  solidarity  of  the  race  and 
its  vital  union  with  all  created  phenomena, 
[119  1 


John  Stuart  M ill 

crushed  the  stark  individualism  of  the  school 
of  Mill. 

While  by  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury Utilitarianism  was  absorbed  in  the  gen- 
eral stream  of  philosophy,  John  Stuart  Mill's 
political  economy  has  persisted  to  the  present 
hour.  The  subject  had  already  been  very  ably 
dealt  with  in  detail  by  Adam  Smith  and  Ricar- 
do;  but  no  writer  before  Mill  had  surveyed  it 
with  anything  like  such  catholicity  or  sympa- 
thy. No  one  had  shown  with  the  same  com- 
prehensiveness and  fascinating  comparison  "the 
relation  which  the  different  parts  of  the  science 
bore  to  each  other;  still  less  had  any  one  so 
well  explained  the  relation  of  this  science  to 
other  sciences  and  to  knowledge  in  general."^ 
He  brought  to  this  eminent  field  all  his  peculiar 
powers;  and  while  the  book  possesses  little 
originality,  it  banishes  the  idea  that  the  "dis- 
mal science"  must  needs  be  held  in  a  narrow- 
minded  or  pedantic  way. 

Indeed,  Mill's  receptivity  and  varied  treat- 
ment laid  him  open  to  the  charge  of  inconsist- 
ency, and  his  critics  pointed  to  the  excited 
emotions  which  frequently  dictated  his  dis- 
course. Abstract  dogmas  on  unlimited  indi- 
vidualism were  followed  by  an  idealism  which 
nullified  them.  He  forsook  logical  order  to 
dilate  upon  the  golden  prospects  of  a  millennial 
future.     Mill  acknowledged  the  justice  of  the 

1  Bagehot's  Essay  on  Mill  (Works,  Vol.  V,  p.  415). 
[  120  1 


John   Stuart  Mill 

criticism,  and  explained  his  lapse  by  attributing 
these  ideals  to  Saint-Simon,  the  distinguished 
philosopher  who  was  more  or  less  prominent  in  the 
politics  of  his  country.  Professor  Cousin  of  the 
Sorbonne  and  Auguste  Comte  aided  Saint- 
Simon  in  deflecting  Mill  from  orthodox  Ben- 
thamism. The  founder  of  Positivism  combined 
with  his  reasoning  on  economics  a  serious  at- 
tempt to  expand  the  sociology  of  his  day  into 
a  more  coordinated  form.  Mill  reveals  the 
results  of  his  intercourse  with  these  lucid  and 
persuasive  writers,  whose  precise  and  graceful 
explanations  were  extremely  attractive  to  him. 
But  his  gifts  for  weaving  diversified  matter  into 
a  unified  whole  were  embarrassed  by  the  wealth 
of  his  material.  Either  he  lacked  the  reflective 
strength  which  could  adequately  deal  with  his 
enormous  knowledge,  or  else  he  could  not  extri- 
cate himself  from  his  inherited  materialism. 
He  stood  at  the  crossroads  where  fierce  winds 
blew  from  every  quarter;  but  he  stood  so 
weighted  down  with  his  father's  creed  that  no 
particular  breeze  could  bear  him  along.  The 
strange  intermingling  of  Scotch  common  sense 
and  Gallican  political  rapture,  to  which  refer- 
ence has  been  made,  colored  many  of  his  utter- 
ances, and  caused  men  of  opposite  parties  to 
appeal  to  these  diverse  elements  in  support  of 
their  widely  different  theories.  Even  the  social- 
ists of  our  day  and  not  without  some  show  of 
reason  have  laid  claim  to  him. 
f  121 1 


John   Stuart  Mill 

This  universality  may  help  to  account  for 
his  monarchical  influence.  All  students  of 
political  economy  during  his  day  began  with 
Mill,  and  went  only  to  other  writers  for  con- 
firmation of  his  views.  Mr.  Bagehot  states 
that  they  saw  the  science  through  his  eyes, 
and  that  his  preeminence  among  his  contempo- 
raries was  so  complete  as  to  be  at  times  of 
doubtful  benefit.  Mill  had  been  taught  to  look 
upon  labor  as  painful,  and  economic  effort  as 
belonging  to  the  disagreeable;  but  John  Ster- 
ling and  other  friends  showed  him  that  the 
pleasures  involved  far  outweighed  the  pains. 
A  new  ideal  of  social  progress  possessed  him,  and 
he  made  plans  for  its  realization.  He  speaks  of 
political  economy  and  physical  science  as  though 
no  others  existed,  and  for  him  political  economy 
had  become  moral  science  because  all  social, 
political,  psychical,  and  moral  considerations 
influence  the  creation  of  wealth.  His  father 
drew  an  analogy  between  the  political  economy 
of  the  State  and  the  domestic  economy  of  the 
family.  The  first  embraced  everything  relative 
to  public  affairs  while  the  second  included  all 
things  of  a  private  character.  The  last  was  a 
miniature  of  the  first,  and  the  State  should  be 
regulated  on  a  domestic  basis  of  equality  of 
work  and  profit. 

John  Stuart  Mill  went  farther,  and  regarded 
political  economy  as  "the  science  relating  to 
the  moral  or  psychological  laws  of  the  produc- 
[122] 


John   Stuart  Mill 

tion  and  distribution  of  wealth." '  Mental  and 
moral  phenomena  are  thus  brought  within  the 
scope  of  economic  inquiry.  He  also  traces  the 
laws  of  society  from  the  concerted  efforts  of 
men  for  the  production  of  wealth.  His  purpose 
in  writing  was  to  give  a  new  setting  to  the  teach- 
ings of  Ricardo  and  Adam  Smith.  Much  that 
is  best  in  these  writers  is  absorbed  by  him  and 
reinterpreted  in  a  more  attractive  way.  Not 
a  little  of  the  merit  of  the  work,  however,  lies 
in  his  special  contributions  on  the  themes  of 
society  and  civilization.  Many  modern  works 
on  social  problems  bear  marked  traces  of  his 
method  of  treatment  and  of  his  opinions.  It 
may  be  said  that,  under  the  influence  of  the 
Comtian  philosophy,  he  elevated  political  econ- 
omy above  the  phenomena  of  environment,  and 
set  it  forth  as  a  new  species  of  idealism.  After 
his  masterly  treatment  of  the  science,  it  was 
taken  from  the  region  of  mere  abstraction  and 
given  practical  form  and  applicability  for  con- 
crete life. 

It  would  be  beside  the  question  to  discuss  at 
any  length  Mill's  Logic,  as  books  of  such  a 
nature  do  well,  provided  they  serve  their  day 
and  generation.  This  his  Logic  did,  quite  as 
well  as  Whately's,  and  the  temporary  influence 
of  its  almost  universal  scope  was  enormous. 
Grotc  wrote  in  the  Westminster  Review  as  long 

'  See  Professor  Patten's  Development  of  English  Thought,  pp. 
323  ff. 

f  123  1 


John  Stuart  M ill 

ago  as  January,  1866,  and  termed  it  "the  most 
important  advance  in  speculative  theory  which 
the  century  had  witnessed."  This  verdict  has 
since  undergone  material  modification,  and  so 
eminent  an  authority  as  the  late  Professor 
Stanley  Jevons  affirms  that  the  inconsistencies 
of  the  book  show  Mill's  mind  to  be  essentially 
illogical.  But  no  one  will  deny  that  seldom  in 
the  history  of  philosophy  have  two  books  so 
learned,  so  thorough,  and  so  far-reaching  been 
written  with  greater  scholarship,  more  skilful 
capacity,  or  higher  aims.  Upon  the  Logic  as 
much  as  upon  the  Political  Economy  and  the 
essay  On  Liberty  Mill's  greatness  as  a  thinker 
and  writer  must  continue  to  rest.  And  while 
the  subjects  with  which  they  deal  are  too  full 
of  the  contentions  and  differences  brought  about 
by  the  growth  of  knowledge  and  the  necessities 
of  change  to  enable  any  man  to  be  a  permanent 
authority  upon  them,  assent  will  be  given  to 
some  of  Mill's  conclusions  for  many  years  to 
come.^ 

Ill 

Social  and  religious  questions  form  an  inte- 
gral part  of  Mill's  philosophy;  indeed,  they 
occupy  a  paramount  place  in  the  teaching  of 
most  nineteenth-century  leaders  of  thought. 
That  three  such  leaders  as  Mill,  Carlyle,  and 
Newman  should  have  lived  at  the  same  time 

1  Bagehot's  Essay  on  Mill  (Works,  Vol.  V,  pp.  412-417). 
[  124  ] 


John  Stuart  Mill 

is,  to  Leslie  Stephen,  a  remarkable  occurrence. 
All  were  philosophers  after  a  fashion ;  they 
sought  the  same  end  in  the  good  of  society ; 
but  each  attempted  its  achievement  in  very  dif- 
ferent ways.  Leaving  Newman  out  of  account, 
the  contrast  is  between  Mill  and  Carlyle.  The 
former  differed  from  the  latter  in  that  he  was 
the  studied  product  of  a  school  to  whose  ideas 
he  gave  a  new  development  and  application. 
While  Carlyle  hurled  accusations  against  soci- 
ety to  the  very  end,  Mill,  who  was  supposed 
at  the  first  to  occupy  the  same  platform, 
became  the  prophet  of  better  things,  and 
sought  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  masses 
Carlyle  despised.  Two  great  moral  beliefs  are 
indispensable  for  the  work  of  a  teacher  or  re- 
former: he  must  believe  in  the  reality  of  his 
message,  and  he  must  also  believe  in  its  accept- 
ability. It  was  the  secret  of  Carlyle's  tragedy 
that  he  held  the  first  and  not  the  second;  he  had 
a  Calvinistic  depth  of  conviction  concerning  the 
truths  he  uttered,  but,  alas!  he  had  no  confi- 
dence in  men's  sure  response  —  they  were  mostly 
fools.  \Mien  Mill  wrote  his  Letters  on  The 
Spirit  of  the  Age,  Carlyle  exclaimed,  "Here 
is  a  new  mystic."  These  Letters  advocate 
unanimity  in  the  methods  of  arriving  at  con- 
clusions in  political  or  social  problems.  By 
unanimity  Mill  meant  what  Arnold  afterward 
desired  for  literature  as  set  forth  in  his  essay  on 
A  French  Eton.  Every  progressive  science  de- 
[125] 


John  Stuart  M  ill 

pends  on  such  an  agreement  among  its  experts; 
therefore,  why  should  not  these  social  difficul- 
ties, the  solution  of  which  means  so  much  to 
the  nation's  well-being,  be  similarly  deter- 
mined? This  is  what  Mill  meant  by  "social 
science."  To  him  it  was  capable  of  an  exacti- 
tude equal  to  that  of  natural  science;  it  in- 
cluded correct  diagnoses  and  proper  remedies, 
which  were  calculated  to  advance  civilization, 
and  rid  it  of  its  many  evils.  The  ignorance 
and  uncertainty  concerning  even  the  very  rudi- 
ments of  social  problems  showed  the  crying 
need  of  an  ordered  investigation.  But  Mill's 
efforts  failed,  as  did  his  attempt  to  form  a 
Radical  party  in  Parliament.  The  failure, 
however,  was  only  temporary;  for  his  work 
gave  to  reform  the  inestimable  benefit  of  a  good 
advertisement,  and  modern  social  ethics  owe  to 
him  more  than  has  yet  been  determined.  The 
steady  expansion  of  the  emotional  side  of  his 
nature,  for  which  Mrs.  Taylor's  companionship 
was  responsible,  was  manifest  in  his  increasing 
sympathy  with  the  plain  people.  "The  human 
element"  he  claims  was  due  to  her,  and  as  he 
contemplated  the  condemnation  of  thousands  of 
laborers  to  a  wretched  and  cramped  existence, 
and  thousands  more  to  semi-starvation,  the 
hideous  spectacle  haunted  him  day  and  night. 
Hatred  of  oppression  of  any  sort  was  a  fire  in 
his  bones.  His  suppressed  wrath  can  be  felt  as 
he  recounts  the  tyrannical  brutalities  of  man 
[1261 


John   Stuart  Mill 

to  woman  and  the  recklessness  shown  by  men 
and  women  to  helpless  animals. 

These  evils  could  only  be  suppressed  by  a 
thorough  reformation  of  economic  conditions 
and  a  wise  and  judicial  administration  of  an 
exalted  democracy.  In  order  to  acquaint  him- 
self with  the  entire  situation  he  made  a  minute 
study  of  the  literature  of  sociology;  and  though 
he  was  no  sectarian,  he  was  not  finally  opposed 
to  socialism.  Rather  than  permit  the  present 
condition  to  continue  he  would  have  preferred 
socialism  as  the  lesser  evil.  He  says,  "  The  social 
problem  of  the  future  [will  be]  how  to  unite  the 
greatest  individual  liberty  of  action  with  a  com- 
mon ownership  in  the  raw  material  of  the  globe, 
and  an  equal  participation  of  all  in  the  benefits 
of  combined  labor."  ^  But  he  recognized  that 
socialism  would  utterly  fail  unless  supplied  with 
a  high  type  of  character,  and  that  so  long  as 
men  continued  to  allow  their  political  beliefs 
to  be  actuated  by  their  individual  interests 
rather  than  by  the  general  welfare  they  were 
not  fitted  for  socialism  in  practise.  He  always 
looked  to  education  as  the  chief  means  of  rais- 
ing them  to  this  disinterested  level,  but  his 
opinions  fluctuated  as  to  the  speedy  realization 
of  this  end.  At  the  close  of  his  life  he  was  less 
sanguine  in  his  estimate  of  the  interval  that 
must  elapse  before  democracy  could  wisely 
adapt  itself  to  such  a  far-reaching  adjustment. 

1  Autobiography,  p.  iSi. 
[127] 


John   Stuart  Mill 

This  loss  of  confidence  was  caused  by  the  un- 
worthy attitude  of  a  large  portion  of  the  British 
public  toward  the  Civil  War  in  America.^  Mill 
was  no  demagogue.  He  could  and  did  unflinch- 
ingly resist  the  tumultuous  tyranny  which  usurps 
the  true  function  of  democracy.  He  pleaded 
for  the  latter  as  a  form  of  government,  because 
in  his  opinion  politics  were  highly  educative  to 
the  mass  of  the  people.  He,  however,  was 
aware  of  its  dangers,  and  insisted  on  minorities 
being  represented  in  legislative  bodies.  The 
Radicalism  he  promoted  was  a  protest  against 
the  privileges  of  oligarchical  rule  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  tumult  of  mob  law  on  the  other; 
and  he  flung  his  trained  energies  into  the  pro- 
test, to  such  advantage,  that  to-day  we  see  in 
England  a  triumphant  democracy  trying  its 
prentice-hand  at  the  creation  of  opportuni- 
ties for  the  many  instead  of  the  few.  This 
movement  for  the  reclamation  of  popular 
rights  owes  not  a  little  to  the  keen  advocacy  of 
Mill. 

He  sat  in  the  House  of  Commons  from  1865 
to  1868,  and  his  sensitiveness  to  duty  made  him 
rivet  himself  to  his  place  during  every  hour  of 
the  session.  While  his  presence  there  was 
deemed  an  honor,  he  never  felt  at  home  in  that 
unique  and  powerful  assembly.  By  nature  and 
training  he  was  not  a  Parliamentarian,  and 
Disraeli   is   reported   to   have   called   him    "a 

^Autobiography,  p.  269. 

[128] 


John   Stuart  Mill 

political-finishing  governess,"  a  phrase  which 
may  have  referred  to  the  didactic  tone  of  Mill's 
speeches.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  Gladstone 
who  gave  him  the  widely  quoted  title,  **the 
Saint  of  Rationalism,"  adding,  "He  did  us  all 
good."  Bright  voted  against  him  on  one  occa- 
sion; and  when  reproached  for  doing  so,  he 
gruffly  replied  that  "the  worst  of  great  thinkers 
is  that  they  generally  think  wrong."  This  sally 
was  not  serious,  for  Mill  and  Bright  were  asso- 
ciated on  many  important  and  far-reaching 
issues.  Mill  undoubtedly  knew  more  of  the 
empire  of  India  than  any  other  member  of  the 
House  of  his  day,  and  he  narrowly  missed  a  seat 
on  the  first  Imperial  Council.  He  retired  from 
Parliament  with  a  sense  of  relief,  because  he 
felt  that  his  true  mission  was  to  affect  the  course 
of  events,  not  by  an  official  career  —  his  gifts 
were  unsuited  to  the  rough-and-tumble  of  de- 
bate —  but  by  directing  the  trend  of  general 
thought  and  current  opinion.  For  this  he 
had  peculiar  qualifications;  and  to  have  puri- 
fied the  social  and  political  controversies  of 
the  time  from  passion  and  prejudice,  develop- 
ing moderation  and  balance  is  a  service  that 
cannot  be  too  highly  praised.  The  man  who 
brings  about  a  new  and  beneficial  result  de- 
serves a  high  place  among  his  fellows,  and 
scarcely  lower  would  we  account  the  man  who, 
like  Mill,  regenerates  our  methods  of  thinking. 
Thus,  although  as  a  member  of  Parliament  he 
[  129  1 


John   Stuart  Mill 

achieved  small  distinction,  his  whole  conduct  in 
public  was,  according  to  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison, 
"that  of  a  courageous,  conscientious,  and  noble- 
minded  citizen,  who  gave  his  countrymen  a 
rare  example  of  how  to  play  the  most  perilous 
of  all  parts  —  'the  role  of  a  philosopher  as 
ruler.'"  Whether  we  agree  or  not  with  these 
claims,  his  bearing  was  always  a  combination 
of  fidelity,  justice,  and  courage. 

Though  brought  up  in  absolute  indifference 
to  religion,  Mill  had  a  very  religious  nature;  it 
was  not  until  after  his  death,  however,  that 
the  world  became  acquainted  with  the  views  he 
actually  held.  His  father  had  been  early  led  to 
reject,  not  only  the  belief  in  any  revelation,  but 
also  the  foundations  of  natural  religion.  But- 
ler's Analogy  restrained  him  for  a  while,  but 
eventually  he  considered  the  Bishop's  argu- 
ments as  conclusive  for  nobody  except  the 
opponent  for  whom  it  was  intended.  Finding 
no  halting-place  in  Deism,  he  finally  took  ref- 
uge in  what  was  known  later  as  Agnosticism. 
The  activity  of  evil  in  the  world  promoted  his 
negative  attitude.  The  younger  Mill  never 
threw  off  religious  belief,  because  he  never  had 
it.  He  looked  upon  all  faiths,  ancient  and 
modern,  as  matters  which  did  not  concern  him.^ 
But  the  parental  advice  that  he  should  not  speak 
freely  of  this  state  of  mind  caused  him  to  turn 
within  himself;  and  when  his  Three  Essays  on 

'  See  Autobiography,  p.  43. 
[130  1 


John   Stuart  Mill 

Religion  appeared,  they  made  quite  a  commo- 
tion among  his  followers.  Leslie  Stephen  put 
the  book  down  and  paced  his  study  in  angry 
surprise.  Mrs.  Stephen  offered  the  consoling 
remark,  "I  always  told  you  John  Mill  was  or- 
thodox." A  controversy  arose  as  to  the  real 
nature  of  Mill's  religious  opinions.  The  first 
essay  deals  with  the  various  interpretations 
that  can  be  given  to  the  term  "Nature,"  and  the 
aim  is  to  show  that  Nature  is  not  a  true  and 
complete  guide  in  religion  and  morals.  The 
following  passages  are  good  examples  of  the 
tone  of  the  essay: 

"Nature  impales  men,  breaks  them  as  if  on 
the  wheel,  casts  them  to  be  devoured  by  wild 
beasts,  burns  them  to  death,  crushes  them  with 
stones  like  the  first  Christain  martyr,  starves 
them  with  hunger,  freezes  them  with  cold,  poisons 
them  by  the  quick  or  slow  venom  of  her  exhala- 
tions, and  has  hundreds  of  other  hideous  deaths 
in  reserve,  such  as  the  ingenious  cruelty  of  a 
Nabis  or  a  Domitian  never  surpassed.  All  this 
Nature  does  with  the  most  supercilious  disregard, 
both  of  mercy  and  of  justice,  emptying  her  shafts 
upon  the  best  and  the  noblest  indifferently  with 
the  meanest  and  worst. ^ 

"  [She  is]  replete  with  everything  w^hich  when 
committed  by  human  beings  is  most  worthy  of 
abhorrence;  any  one  who  endeavored  in  his 
actions  to  imitate  the  natural  course  of  things 

'  Three  Essays  on  Religion  (third  edition),  p.  29. 
[  131  ] 


John  Stuart  Mill 

would  be  universally  seen  and  acknowledged  to 
be  the  wickedest  of  men."^ 

This  dread  catalogue  of  deeds,  which  over- 
match anarchy  and  the  reign  of  terror,  drew 
from  Mill  the  dexterous  piece  of  logic  frequently 
quoted:  "Either  God  could  have  prevented  evil, 
and  would  not;  or  He  would  have  prevented  evil, 
and  could  not.  If  I  accept  the  first,  I  conclude 
He  is  not  all-good.  If  I  accept  the  second,  then 
He  is  not  all-powerful."  The  possibilities  of 
God,  however,  cannot  be  compressed  into  a 
dilemma.  Mill's  reasoning  about  the  goodness 
and  power  of  God  and  his  insistence  on  choos- 
ing an  alternative  are  fallacious.  It  is  easy  to 
formulate  a  proposition  that  appears  conclu- 
sive; but  a  syllogism  may  be  formally  correct, 
and  still  be  actually  wrong.  Why  cannot  God  be 
all-powerful,  and  yet  allow  evil  a  place  in  the 
divine  scheme?  That  is  a  supposition  which 
Mill  did  not  even  admit  here,  though  he  allowed 
it  in  a  letter  written  to  a  friend  in  1860,  to 
whom  he  says,  "It  would  be  a  great  moral 
improvement  to  most  persons,  be  they  Chris- 
tian, Deists,  or  atheists,  if  they  firmly  believed 
the  world  to  be  under  the  government  of  a 
Being  who,  willing  only  good,  leaves  evil  in  the 
world  solely  in  order  to  stimulate  human  facul- 
ties by  an  unremitting  struggle  against  every 
form  of  it." 

As  we  have  seen,  he  repudiates  conformity  to 

^  Three  Essays  on  Religion  (third  edition),  p.  65. 
[132] 


John   Stuart  Mill 

nature;  it  is  senseless  and  diabolical;  and,  in 
point  of  fact,  he  asserts  that  all  the  good  accom- 
plished in  the  world  is  the  result  of  man's  con- 
stant effort  to  control  nature's  blind  and  brutal 
havoc.  Darwin's  views  of  nature  were  not  at 
this  time  fully  before  the  world;  Huxley  had 
not  yet  developed  his  theories  as  outlined  in  the 
Romanes  Lecture:  so  that  to  Mill  we  must  give 
the  credit  of  propounding  opinions  which  were 
the  result  of  individual  experiences  and  obser- 
vations; and  although,  to  use  Morley's  terms, 
they  were  merely  a  surface  and  horizontal  view, 
it  is  fair  to  assume  they  had  a  deep  effect  on  the 
thought  of  the  period.  Tennyson  was  nearer 
the  truth  in  his  famous  stanza  on  the  man: 

"Who  trusted  God  was  love  indeed, 
And  love  creation's  final  law  — 
Tho'  Nature,  red  in  tooth  and  claw 
With  ravin,  shrieked  against  his  creed." 

Even  this  is  submission  rather  than  satisfaction, 
but  Mill  could  not  submit.  "It  was  the  con- 
flict of  nature's  way  with  man's  sense  of  justice 
that  compelled  him  to  judge  her  so  terribly; 
it  was  not  its  contradiction  to  a  heart  of  infinite 
pity  in  the  God  who  had  made  man."  ^ 

The  second  essay  dealt  with  the  Utility  of 
Religion.  The  questions  asked  are:  Is  religion 
directly  serviceable  to  the  social  good.'*  Is  it 
useful  for  ennobling  individual  human  nature? 

^  Fairbairn's  The  Philonophy  of  the  Christian  Religion,  p.  96. 
[1331 


John  Stuart  Mill 

He  answers  both  questions  in  the  affirmative, 
though  he  maintains  rehgion  can  have  these  two 
forms  of  utihty  without  being  necessarily  super- 
natural; and  he  concludes  the  essay  with  an 
avowed  preference  for  the  religion  of  humanity, 
or,  to  use  his  own  phrase,  the  rehgion  of  social 
duty.  The  third  essay  is  on  Theism.  It  is 
this  part  of  the  book  which  kindled  the  fears 
of  his  friends.  Morley  felt  that  the  Mill  he 
knew  was  slipping  through  his  hands,  and 
Courtney  declared  that  the  twilight  land  of 
Mill's  semi-faith  was  not  exactly  known  to  his 
followers.  The  first  leading  idea  is  that  God  is 
the  cause  of  the  world,  and  though  not  always 
omnipotent,  yet  always  benevolent.  This  com- 
pares very  oddly  with  a  nature  full  of  cruelties. 
The  second  important  idea  is  immortality,  in 
which  he  has  a  faint  belief.  He  urges  that  the 
soul  may  be  immortal  because  the  body  is  not 
the  cause,  but  only  the  concomitant  of  mental 
life.  The  third  idea  centers  upon  Christ  as  a 
divinely  appointed  teacher.  "Select,"  he  says, 
"all  the  sayings  of  Christ  which  have  high 
value,  and  reject  the  rest,  and  you  are  left  with 
a  character  inexplicable  on  natural  and  his- 
torical grounds."  We  turn  to  his  Logic,  and 
find  that  the  science  of  social  development  can- 
not dispense  with  the  law  of  continuity.  Histor- 
ical sociology  cannot  admit  that  in  the  world's 
delevopment  a  character  could  arise  which  had 
no  relation  to  the  past  and  no  roots  in  existing 
[134  1 


John   Stuart   Mill 

social  conditions.  Yet,  despite  the  Logic,  the 
essay  on  Theism  declares  that  Christ  was 
charged  with  "a  special,  express,  and  unique 
commission  from  God  to  lead  mankind  to 
truth  and  virtue."^  Indeed,  the  whole  para- 
graph is  so  refreshing  we  venture  to  quote  it: 

"Whatever  else  may  be  taken  away  from  us 
by  rational  criticism,  Christ  is  still  left:  a 
unique  figure,  not  more  unlike  all  his  precur- 
sors than  all  his  followers,  even  those  who  had 
the  direct  benefit  of  his  personal  teaching.  It 
is  of  no  use  to  say  that  Christ,  as  exhibited  in 
the  Gospels,  is  not  historical,  and  that  we  know 
not  how  much  of  what  is  admirable  has  been 
superadded  by  the  tradition  of  his  followers. 
The  tradition  of  followers  suffices  to  insert  any 
number  of  marvels,  .  .  .  but  who  among  his 
disciples,  or  among  their  proselytes,  was  ca- 
pable of  inventing  the  sayings  ascribed  to  Jesus, 
or  of  imagining  the  life  and  character  revealed 
in  the  Gospels  ?  But  about  the  life  and  sayings 
of  Jesus  there  is  a  stamp  of  personal  originality, 
combined  with  profundity  of  insight,  which  .  .  . 
must  place  the  Prophet  of  Nazareth,  even  in  the 
estimation  of  those  who  have  no  belief  in  his 
inspiration,  in  the  very  first  rank  of  all  the  men 
of  sublime  genius  of  whom  our  species  can 
boast.  When  this  preeminent  genius  is  com- 
bined with  the  qualities  of  probably  the  greatest 
moral  reformer,  and  martyr  to  that  mission, 

^  Essaya  on  Religion,  p.  ioo. 
f  135  1 


John   Stuart  Mill 

who  ever  existed  upon  earth,  rehgion  cannot  be 
said  to  have  made  a  bad  choice  in  pitching  on 
this  man  as  the  ideal  representative  and  guide 
of  humanity;  nor,  even  now,  would  it  be  easy 
even  for  an  unbeliever  to  find  a  better  transla- 
tion of  the  rule  of  virtue  from  the  abstract  into 
the  concrete  than  to  endeavor  so  to  live  that 
Christ  would  approve  our  life.  When  to  this 
we  add  that,  to  the  conception  of  the  rational 
skeptic,  it  remains  a  possibility  that  Christ 
actually  was  what  he  supposed  himself  to  be 

—  not  God,  for  he  never  made  the  smallest  pre- 
tension to  that  character,  and  would  probably 
have  thought  such  a  pretension  as  blasphemous, 
as  it  seemed  to  the  men  who  condemned  him 

—  but  a  man  charged  with  a  special,  express, 
and  unique  commission  from  God  to  lead  man- 
kind to  truth  and  virtue;  we  may  well  conclude 
that  the  influences  of  religion  on  the  character, 
which  will  remain  after  rational  criticism  has 
done  its  utmost  against  the  evidences  of  relig- 
ion, are  well  worth  preserving,  and  that  what 
they  lack  in  direct  strength,  as  compared  with 
those  of  a  firmer  belief,  is  more  than  compen- 
sated by  the  greater  truth  and  rectitude  of  the 
morality  they  sanction."  ^ 

In  a  letter  to  Carlyle  he  says:  "I  have  recently 
read  the  New  Testament.  ...  It  has  made 
no  new  impression,  only  strengthened  the  best 
of  the  old.     I  have  for  years  had  the  very  same 

^  Essays  on  Religion,  pp.  253  S. 

[136  1 


John  Stuart  Mill 

idea  of  Christ,  and  the  same  unbounded  rever- 
ence for  him  as  now;  it  was  because  of  this 
reverence  that  I  sought  a  more  perfect  acquaint- 
ance with  the  records  of  his  hfe,  that  indeed 
gave  new  hfe  to  the  reverence,  which  in  any 
case  was  becoming  or  was  closely  allied  with 
all  that  was  becoming  a  living  principle  in  my 
character."  V  Confessions  and  sentiments  of 
this  kind  well  up  from  the  deeps  of  his  nature; 
and  had  not  his  youthful  soul  been  overlaid 
with  his  father's  crass  materialism,  we  might 
reasonably  believe  he  would  have  been,  not 
only  the  saint  of  rationalism,  but  a  saint  of 
social  Christianity.  To  have  begun  life  thor- 
oughly diverted  from  Christian  truths  and  to 
rise  steadily  to  such  a  noble  appreciation  of 
Christ,  stands  greatly  to  the  credit  of  Mill. 

During  the  latter  part  of  his  life  he  was  the 
man  to  whom  many  leaders  looked  for  guidance, 
and  his  opinions,  if  not  fully  accepted,  were 
always  worthy  of  serious  consideration.  But 
more  than  that,  he  was  a  living  example  of 
disinterestedness,  and  zeal  for  mankind.  His 
favorite  motto  was,  "The  night  cometh  when 
no  man  can  work."  Every  movement  for  the 
improvement  of  the  conditions  of  the  people 
had  his  whole-hearted  approval,  and  he  endeav- 
ored to  aid  all  who  identified  themselves  with 
beneficent  schemes.  Bain  records  that  he  was 
a  strong  supporter  of  Chadwick's  Poor  Law  and 

1  Letters  of  John  Stuart  Mill,  p.  93. 
f  1371 


John   Stuart  M  ill 

Sanitary  Legislation.  One  of  the  most  striking 
examples  of  his  fearlessness  was  his  firm  opposi- 
tion to  public  opinion  on  the  vexed  questions  of 
Irish  land  legislation.  When  the  penny  postage 
was  initiated,  he  was  overjoyed.  In  other  direc- 
tions, too,  his  services  were  many  and  valuable; 
for  instance,  it  was  he  who  discovered  Tennyson 
to  his  generation,  and  he  also .  revealed  the  in- 
trinsic worth  of  Carlyle's  French  Revolution^ 
securing  for  it  a  speedy  recognition. 

Lastly,  Mill,  as  an  apostle  of  reason,  is  a 
voice  not  without  its  warnings.  For  once  rea- 
son is  jettisoned;  our  later-day  democracy  has 
no  principle  of  guidance,  and  flounders,  as  it  is 
doing  at  this  hour,  among  judgments  that  are 
confused,  dogmatic,  and  narrowly  emotional.  If 
only  the  name  of  a  temporary  leader  is  shouted 
in  a  public  meeting,  it  is  at  once  the  signal 
for  a  round  of  clumsy  abuse  or  meaningless 
applause.  The  real  motive  forces  are  too  fre- 
quently wayward  impulses;  and  quite  indepen- 
dently of  the  question  as  to  whether  reality 
is  behind  them  or  not,  they  take  the  place  of 
orderly  inquiry  and  legitimate  progress.  Un- 
less we  can  return  to  Mill's  methods,  and 
believe  that  facts  cannot  go  ahead  of  ideas, 
reformers  will  hinder  rather  than  help  the 
causes  they  seek  to  serve. 

"No  calculus,  it  has  been  well  said,  can 
integrate  the  innumerable  little  pulses  of  knowl- 
edge and  of  thought  that  he  has  made  to  vibrate 
f  138  1 


John   Stuart  Mill 

in  the  minds  of  his  generation.  In  logic,  in 
ethics,  in  poHtics,  we  have  nourished  ourselves 
at  his  springs.  Let  us  make  the  full  acknowl- 
edgment of  our  debt,  and  also  add  that,  while 
all  that  is  worst  in  him  belongs  to  the  eight- 
eenth century,  all  that  is  best  is  akin  to  the 
highest,  best  spirit  of  the  nineteenth."^  His 
influence  on  his  generation  was  enormous  and 
if  advocates  of  democracy,  political  economists, 
sociologists,  and  moralists  of  today,  see  farther 
than  their  fathers,  it  is  because  they  stand  on 
the  shoulders  of  John  Stuart  Mill. 

1  W.  L.  Courtney's  J.  S.  Mill.  p.  174. 


[139 


FOURTH   LECTURE 
JAMES   MARTINEAU 


"  We  have  become  free  from  the  fetters  of  spiritual 
narrowness;  we  have,  because  of  our  progressive  cul- 
ture, become  capable  of  returning  to  the  Source  and 
apprehending  Christianity  in  its  purity.  We  have 
regained  the  courage  to  stand  with  firm  feet  on  God's 
own  earth  and  to  feel  within,  our  own  human  nature, 
God-endowed.  Let  spiritual  culture  continue  ever  to 
advance,  let  the  natural  sciences  grow  ever  broader  and 
deeper,  and  the  human  spirit  enlarge  itself  as  it  will  — 
yet,  beyond  the  majesty  and  moral  culture  which  shines 
and  lightens  in  the  Gospels,  it  will  not  advance."" 

Goethe. 


JAMES  MARTINEAU 
PART  I 


THE  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  in 
1685  marked  the  culmination  of  the 
fanatical  policy  of  Louis  XIV,  and  inflicted  a 
loss  upon  France  from  which  she  never  re- 
covered. The  nation's  history  was  saddened; 
its  strength  was  depleted;  and  a  quarter  of  a 
million  of  its  choicest  subjects  were  driven  into 
adjacent  provinces  and  beyond  the  high  seas. 
Among  the  Huguenots  who  escaped,  during  the 
harryings  and  dragonnades,  were  Gaston  Mar- 
tineau  and  William  Pierre,  who  met  as  fellow 
refugees  on  the  ship  that  carried  them  to  Eng- 
land. The  tyrannical  and  brutal  assaults  upon 
their  most  cherished  convictions  had  already 
bound  together  this  afflicted  people,  and  the 
friendship  then  begun  ripened  into  a  family 
union.  In  1693  Pierre's  daughter  was  married 
to  Gaston  Marti  neau  at  the  French  church  in 
Spitalfields,  London. 

Two  years  later  the  newly   wedded  couple 

left  the  metropolis,   and  made  their  home  in 

the  ancient  city  of  Norwich,  the  capital  of  East 

Anglia,  and  a  well-known  center  of  Puritanism. 

[143  1 


James  M  ar  tin  e  au 

Here  they  entered  into  more  or  less  intimate 
relationship  with  such  leaders  as  Henry  Finch, 
John  Meadows,  and  Benjamin  Fairfax, — men 
who  had  felt  the  repressive  measures  of  Arch- 
bishop Laud  and  the  Stuarts,  and  who  extended 
a  cordial  and  sympathetic  welcome  to  their 
Huguenot  brethren.  The  sad  yet  heroical 
story  of  the  perils  of  their  ancestors  was  un- 
ceasingly fascinating  to  the  later  Martineaus, 
and  it  kindled  in  them  a  hatred  of  any  sort  of 
legalized  injustice,  and  a  fervent  passion  for 
religious  liberty.  For  several  generations  they 
seem  to  have  followed  the  vocation  of  Gaston 
Martineau  as  practising  surgeons  and  physi- 
cians. But  Thomas,  the  father  of  Dr.  Mar- 
tineau, was  a  wool  merchant,  who,  after  an 
honorable  and  self-sacrificing  career,  died  in 
1826,  leaving  to  his  children  a  stainless  record 
of  moral  intrepidity  and  integrity.  His  wife, 
whose  maiden  name  was  Elizabeth  Rankin, 
hailed  from  northern  England.  She  was  a 
woman  of  devout  and  practical  temper  and  a 
calmly  fervent  zeal,  whose  domestic  duties 
absorbed  her  time  and  toil  and  care.  She 
guarded  the  temporal  and,  more  especially,  the 
spiritual  interests  of  her  household  with  un- 
swerving devotion.  Her  innate  refinement  and 
sweetness  were  never  surrendered  to  the  de- 
mands of  her  hard  and  patient  tasks.  She  had 
an  inborn  taste  for  music,  literature,  and  the 
arts,  which  her  children  imbibed  from  her.  In 
[144  1 


James  Martineau 

this  home  of  even,  strong  desires,  quiet  purity, 
and  simple  steadfastness,  James  Martineau 
was  born  on  the  21st  of  April,  1805.  The 
building,  a  plain  three-storied  brick  structure, 
stands  to-day  on  Magdalene  Street,  and  is 
known  as  the  "Martineau  House."  Under  its 
archway  the  visitor  passes  to  the  garden,  which 
retains  some  traces  of  its  former  beauty.  In 
the  apartment  immediately  above  the  archway 
Harriet  Martineau,  the  famous  sister  of  the 
eight  children,  wrote  her  earlier  works.  The 
city  spreads  from  north  to  south,  encompass- 
ing its  venerable  fabrics,  its  thirty-six  churches, 
and  a  mighty  mound  raised  over  the  bones  of 
the  heathen  king  who  is  buried  deep  beneath, 
his  sword  by  his  side,  and  his  treasures  about 
him.  The  gray  castle  rises  three  hundred  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  flatlands,  and  among  the 
immemorial  trees  stands  the  Norman  master's 
work,  the  great  cathedral,  with  its  stately  and 
cloud-encircled  spire,  which  George  Borrow 
never  ceased  to  praise. 

The  meeting-house  where  the  Martineaus 
worshipped  was  knowTi  as  the  Octagon  Chapel. 
John  Wesley  described  it  in  his  Journal  as 
"perhaps  the  most  elegant  in  all  Europe,  the 
inside  is  furnished  in  the  highest  taste  and  is 
as  clean  as  any  nobleman's  salon.  How  can  it 
be  thought  that  the  coarse  old  gospel  should 
find  admission  there.'*"  It  harbored  a  different 
presentation  of  the  evangel  from  that  which 
[145  1 


James  M  artine  au 

Wesley's  gallant  and  hardy  field-preachers 
would  have  made,  yet  one  which  gave  to  the 
earnest  lad  who  heard  it  a  consciousness  of  the 
Everlasting  God  as  his  divine  Father  and  a 
profound  reverence  for  sacred  realities.  The 
sermons  of  Thomas  Madge,  the  first  pastor  he 
recalled,  kindled  in  him  an  ambition  to  become 
a  messenger  of  truth  and  peace  to  men. 

In  the  well-ordered  and  frugal  household  of 
the  Martineaus  the  older  children  taught  the 
younger,  and  James  was  always  the  peculiar 
charge  of  Harriet,  who  felt  herself  responsible 
for  what  he  said  and  did.  His  eldest  brother, 
Thomas,  a  rising  surgeon  of  much  promise, 
died  while  comparatively  young.  When  James 
was  eight  years  old,  he  entered  Norwich  Gram- 
mar School,  where  he  remained  from  1815  to 
1817.  Later  he  was  sent  to  Bristol  to  the 
academy  of  the  well-known  Dr.  Lant  Car- 
penter, whose  wise  and  timely  instructions 
stimulated  his  growing  intellect  and  moral 
enthusiasm.  Upon  leaving  Bristol  he  proceeded 
to  Derby,  with  the  intention  of  becoming  an 
engineer.  Fortunately  for  Christendom  that 
purpose  was  thwarted;  but  the  visit  was  an 
important  event  in  his  career,  for  in  the  home 
of  the  Rev.  Edward  Higginson  he  met  his 
future  wife,  and  while  here  he  definitely 
decided  on  the  course  his  life  should  take. 
The  death  of  Henry  Turner  of  Nottingham,  a 
junior  minister  of  spiritual  renown,  so   moved 

fuel 


James  Martineau 

him  that  "it  worked  his  conversion  and  sent 
him  into  the  ministry." 

When  he  looked  around  for  a  theological 
school  in  which  to  begin  his  preparatory  train- 
ing, he  found  none  which  did  not  demand  creedal 
tests  and  subscriptions,  save  the  Free  College 
then  located  at  York,  later  at  Manchester,  and 
finally  at  London.  To  York  he  went,  and  was 
enrolled  there  as  a  student  in  1822.  The  cur- 
riculum was  an  unusually  advantageous  one 
for  the  times,  and  Martineau  availed  himself 
to  the  fullest  extent  of  its  opportunities.  At 
the  conclusion  of  his  course  he  faced  the 
future,  enriched  in  mind  by  his  arduous  studies, 
and  mellowed  in  character  by  the  sorrows  he 
had  experienced  in  the  loss  of  his  father  and 
brother.  A  single  quotation  from  the  grave 
and  prescient  youth  of  twenty-two  shows  how 
mature  he  was.  "Nothing,"  said  he,  "is  with- 
out God.  The  fields  of  earth,  the  boundless 
recesses  of  heaven,  are  the  scenes  of  His  cease- 
less activity.  He  is  felt  in  every  breeze  that 
blows;  He  is  seen  in  every  form  of  beauty  and 
sublimity."  Such  was  the  creed  he  had  formu- 
lated, derived  in  part  from  this  creedless  insti- 
tution, and  it  proved  to  be  a  sufficient  foundation 
upon  which  the  graduate  could  erect  one  of  the 
noblest  religious  philosophies  of  any  age. 

On  leaving  college  he  took  the  place  of  his 
former  master.  Dr.  Carpenter,  and  a  little  later 
was  called  from  Bristol  to  the  assistant  pas- 
[U7  1 


James  M  artin  e  au 

torate  of  Eustace  Street  Congregation,  Dublin. 
Here  comparative  freedom  from  parochial  de- 
tails enabled  him  to  perfect  his  pulpit  style 
right  early.  His  views  on  sermonic  develop- 
ment were  always  high  and  serious,  and  he 
approached  his  people  only  after  the  most 
thorough  and  exhaustive  preparation  of  the 
themes  he  selected  for  their  meditation.  The 
results  of  this  unhampered  study  were  seen  in  his 
creation  of  a  new  order  of  homiletical  literature, 
of  which  Hours  of  Thought  and  Endeavors  after 
the  Christian  Life  are  the  best  examples,  and  des- 
tined, in  the  opinion  of  not  a  few  competent 
critics,  to  outlive  the  rest  of  his  works.  His 
ordination  followed  his  call,  and  it  is  worthy  of 
remark  that  the  future  prophet  of  liberal  Chris- 
tianity received  it  from  the  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Ireland,  which  then  participated  in  the  "  her- 
esies "  of  the  day.  After  the  office  of  the  ministry 
had  been  fully  assumed,  he  returned  to  England 
to  marry  Miss  Higginson,  who  proved  to  be  in 
all  respects  "a  complete  helpmeet  worthy  of 
the  great  love  he  bore  her."  They  made  their 
first  home  in  Dublin,  and  there  began  a 
Jiappy  period  of  mutual  sympathy  and  con- 
genial work.  In  addition  to  his  clerical  duties, 
which  were  not  excessive,  he  taught  Hebrew 
and  the  higher  mathematics  to  undergraduates 
of  the  University. 

When  it  fell  to  his  lot  to  undertake  the  senior 
pastorate   of   the   Eustace   Street   Church,   he 
[148  1 


James  M  ar  tine  au 

found  connected  with  its  financial  resources  a 
Government  grant  of  money,  which  dated 
from  the  time  of  the  Stuarts.  This  he  at  once 
refused  to  accept,  and  wrote  a  powerful  defense 
of  his  action  containing  four  reasons  against 
State  pay  or  patronage.  The  dispute  was 
severe,  and  he  resigned  his  charge  rather  than 
lower  his  standard.  At  the  moment  he  had 
no  prospect  of  another  appointment;  but  the 
sterling  manliness  and  consistency  of  his  atti- 
tude drew  many  hearts  toward  the  courageous 
young  preacher,  and  he  soon  received  and 
accepted  an  invitation  to  the  Paradise  Street 
Chapel,  Liverpool,  where  he  spent  twenty-four 
years  from  1832  to  1857  —  years  filled  with 
growing  usefulness  and  gradually  extending 
fame.  His  colleagues  in  the  Unitarian  churches 
of  the  town  were  John  Hamilton  Thom  and 
Henry  Giles,  men  of  learning  and  eloquence, 
who  joined  him  in  repelling  a  bitter  attack  upon 
their  interpretation  of  Christianity,  which  had 
been  engendered  by  a  group  of  Anglican  clergy- 
men. The  debate  excited  national  interest, 
and  was  known  as  "The  Liverpool  Contro- 
versy." Its  chief  outcome  was  the  revelation 
of  Martineau's  hitherto  unsuspected  powers 
and  resources.  Orthodox  and  heretical  alike 
were  forced  to  recognize  in  him  the  foremost 
divine  of  the  Unitarian  fellowship.  Apart  from 
this  gratifying  result,  the  quarrel  was  as  acri- 
monious as  it  was  useless.  But  it  secured  him 
[1491 


James  Martineau 

friends  and  supporters,  who  gladly  provided 
the  necessary  funds  for  further  cultivation  of 
his  remarkable  gifts.  In  1848  they  sent  him  to 
Berlin  University,  where  he  spent  one  winter, 
during  which  he  made  a  careful  survey  of  Ger- 
man thought  and  literature.  Greek  philosophy 
was  also  studied  from  a  fresh  standpoint,  and 
the  general  effect  of  this  contact  was  such  that 
he  always  referred  to  it  as  the  time  of  "a  new 
intellectual  birth."  He  wrote  to  Francis  W. 
Newman,  the  Cardinal's  brother,  "I  shall  ever 
be  thankful  for  this  year  of  absence;  it  has  at 
last  assured  me  that  I  am  not  too  old  to  learn." 
The  Liverpool  ministry  and  the  earlier  years  in 
London  reveal  marked  traces  of  his  visit  to 
Germany.  It  consolidated  Martineau's  posi- 
tion among  both  admirers  and  opponents  of  his 
theological  tendencies.  Moncure  D.  Conway 
states  that  the  English  clergy  awoke  to  the 
fact  that  here  was  a  Unitarian  minister  who 
left  them  far  behind  "in  philosophical  culture, 
in  classical  lore,  in  biblical  criticism,"  and  in 
an  ordered  and  weighty  style  of  speech,  which 
was  a  fitting  instrumentality  for  these  superior 
attainments.  Crowning  all  other  endowments, 
even  the  prejudiced  discovered  in  Martineau  a 
spiritual  clarity  and  insight  and  an  attractive 
symmetry  of  character,  which  were  the  more 
effective  because  of  the  utter  absence  of  arro- 
gance or  the  taint  of  cant. 

In  1853  he  was  appointed  a  lecturer  in  his 
f  150  1 


James   Martineau 

Alma  Mater,  and  five  years  later,  when  the 
college  was  removed  to  London,  he  decided  to 
resign  his  charge  at  Liverpool,  in  order  that  he 
might  continue  his  professorship  in  the  re- 
founded  institution.  He  united  this  office  with 
the  pastorate  of  the  Little  Portland  Street 
Chapel.  "Gain  does  not  tempt  me,"  he  said 
to  his  sorrowing  flock  when  he  bade  them  fare- 
well, "for  I  go  to  a  poorer  life;  or  Ambition, 
for  I  retire  to  a  less  conspicuous ;  or  Ease,  for 
I  commit  myself  to  unsparing  labor."  ^  His 
advent  in  the  metropolis  fulfilled  the  aims  he 
had  steadily  kept  before  him  since  his  vacation 
in  Germany.  He  became  the  foremost  preacher 
of  his  order,  a  living  voice  uttering,  for  those 
whom  he  strove  to  aid,  the  truths  by  which  men 
and  nations  live.  During  his  residence  abroad 
a  renewed  conviction  of  man's  moral  obliga- 
tions, and  a  fresh  insight  into  the  fundamental 
verities  underlying  visible  things,  had  quickened 
his  perceptions  and  given  him  a  vision  of  the 
future  he  had  not  previously  enjoyed.  This  con- 
tact with  the  deeper  and  more  vital  thought  of 
the  Continentals  enabled  him  to  pierce  through 
mere  verbiage,  and  the  result  was  that  his 
utterances  glowed  with  the  spirit  of  an  illu- 
minating philosophy.  He  was  entirely  freed 
from  the  Utilitarian  and  Necessitarian  views 
then  prevalent  in  Britain ;  he  parted  company 
forever  with  the  Benthamites,  and  their  latest 

'  Life  and  Letters  of  James  Martineau,  Vol.  I,  p.  326. 
[151] 


James  M  artine  a 


u 


advocate,  John  Stuart  Mill,  He  identified 
himself  with  a  refined  and  spiritually  susceptible 
metaphysic,  of  which  he  became  a  thoroughly 
competent  exponent.  His  friendships  with  John 
James  Taylor  and  Francis  W.  Newman  were 
important  factors  at  this  time.  The  former,  his 
predecessor  whom  he  succeeded  as  principal  of 
the  college  in  1869,  was  a  generous  and  urbane 
scholar  whose  culture  and  geniality  charmed 
professors  and  students  alike;  the  latter  was 
a  misunderstood  man,  whose  story  is  pathetic. 
Newman  had  lost  the  love  of  many  of  his  asso- 
ciates; he  was  hampered  by  marked  peculiari- 
ties, but  ever  eager  in  his  search  for  truth,  and 
he  suffered  acutely  for  the  sake  of  his  opinions. 
The  foolish  and  wayward  people  whose  frivol- 
ity and  pleasure-seeking  betray  their  sordidness, 
and  the  degraded  whose  lives  are  openly  vile, 
were  never  the  direct  objects  of  Martineau's 
mission  as  he  conceived  it.  He  desired  above 
all  else  to  enlighten  and  cheer  those  who  take 
life  at  the  best;  those  who,  though  prone  to 
God  and  goodness,  beauty  and  truth,  are  robbed 
of  their  faith  and  hope  by  doubt  and  uncer- 
tainty. For  such  perplexed  and  encumbered 
souls  he  had  an  unfailing  affinity,  and  his  apti- 
tude for  elucidation  found  free  play  in  his 
service  to  them.  There  was  a  certain  fascina- 
tion about  the  stately  aloofness  of  Martineau's 
spirit  which  drew  the  few,  though  it  did  not 
attract  the  multitude.  This,  together  with  a 
[1521 


James  Martineau 

characteristic  wistful  tenderness,  justified  Lady 
Tennyson's  description  of  him  as  having  "a 
subtle  and  wonderful  mind;  he  is  mournful 
and  tender-looking,  'a  noble  gentleman.' "  ^  In 
this  congregation  were  to  be  found  such  celeb- 
rities as  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  Charles  Dickens, 
Miss  Frances  Power  Cobbe,  and  other  scien- 
tific and  literary  magnates.  Mr.  A.  W.  Jackson 
described  his  presence  in  the  London  pulpit  as 
"a  tall,  spare  figure  robed  in  the  scholar's 
gown,  and  wearing  the  dignities  of  his  office 
as  a  natural  grace;  a  thin  face,  suggestive 
of  the  cloister,  and  traced  with  deep  lines  of 
thought;  a  voice  not  loud,  but  musical  and 
reaching;  an  enunciation  leisurely  but  not 
slow,  and  perfectly  distinct.  .  .  .  And  now  the 
sermon;  from  the  beginning  it  is  plain  that  it 
is  to  serious  thought,  yes,  and  hard  thinking, 
that  you  are  invited.  .  .  .  Dr.  Martineau  as  a 
preacher  never  entertains;  he  has  serious  busi- 
ness with  you,  and  to  the  consideration  of  that 
he  holds  you  with  little  thought  whether  he 
entertain  or  not.  You  have  been  living  in  some 
castle  of  worldliness  or  pride;  —  there  is  a  hope- 
less debris  around  you,  and  you  a  shivering  and 
unsheltered  soul  in  the  bleak  desert  of  the 
world.  You  are  suffocated  with  the  dust  of 
life;  you  are  borne  away  to  some  Alpine  sum- 
mit where  the  air  is  free  and  a  glory  thrills 
you.     You  came  hither,  as  you  felt,  deserted 

^  Lije  and  Letters  of  James  Martineau,  Vol.  II,  p.  i. 
[153  1 


James  M  artin  e  au 

and  alone;  you  go  home  with  —  God."  ^ 
"Sometimes,"  adds  Miss  Cobbe,  "these  ascents 
were  steep  and  difficult."  No  doubt  they  were, 
even  for  climbers  of  her  caliber;  but  the 
preacher  was  no  ordinary  guide  to  these  bolder 
spiritual  eminences.  The  upward  movements 
he  directed  were  strong  and  sure;  they  justified 
the  remark  of  Mr.  Gladstone  that  "Dr.  Mar- 
tineau  was  the  greatest  living  thinker  of  his 
calling."  He  laid  emphasis,  not  only  on  the 
virgin  scholarship  and  profound  thought  which 
characterized  his  spoken  words,  but  also  on  all 
the  requirements  of  a  city  parish,  and  especially 
on  the  Christian  nurture  of  childhood  and  youth. 
As  might  be  expected,  he  spent  laborious  days 
in  his  study;  but  he  was  no  mere  recluse, 
unversed  in  worldly  wisdom,  for  his  knowledge 
of  practical  affairs  was  both  extensive  and 
accurate.  Nothing  escaped  him.  He  held 
that  "a  soul  occupied  with  great  ideas  best  per- 
forms small  duties."  And  the  reward  of  his 
efforts  was  not  in  the  confidence  of  the  cultured 
earned  alone,  but  in  the  respect  and  even  ven- 
eration of  the  young  people  of  his  charge  and 
of  the  students  of  the  college. 

Harvard  first,  then  Leyden,  Edinburgh, 
Oxford,  and  Dublin  gave  him  their  highest 
degrees.  The  Spectator  pointed  out  that  while 
learned  Europe  heaped  its  honors  upon  him, 
Oxford  did  not  seem  to  discover  him  till  he 

1  James  ilartineau:  A  iStudy  and  Biography,  pp.  143-144. 
[154] 


James  Martineau 

was  over  eighty,  and  Cambridge  appears  never 
to  have  heard  of  him.  The  recognition  ac- 
corded, whether  early  or  late,  was  based  on 
a  growing  list  of  philosophical  and  theological 
treatises  which  could  not  be  ignored,  although 
in  some  points  they  were  diametrically  opposed 
to  orthodox  dogmas.  Ambassador  Bryce,  who 
presented  him  at  Oxford  in  1885,  for  the  recep- 
tion of  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Civil  Law,  testi- 
fied to  his  long  life,  "full  of  dignity,  sweetness, 
and  distinguished  literary  activity."  ^  The 
encomium  was  worthy  of  both  men,  and  it 
selected  from  the  embarrassing  wealth  of  Mar- 
tineau's  life  and  services  those  features  which 
will  remain  as  the  permanent  possessions  of 
Englishmen  and  Americans  in  days  to  come. 
Gladstone,  Ruskin,  Tennyson,  Huxley,  Tyndall, 
Cardinal  Manning,  Father  Dalgairns,  Henry 
Sidgwick,  and  Dr.  Ward  and  others  formed 
with  Martineau  "The  Metaphysical  Society." 
They  met  to  discuss  subjects  of  the  highest 
import,  and  when  the  society  was  dissolved  the 
minute-book  was  presented  to  Dr.  Martineau 
as  a  token  of  gratitude  for  his  services  to  the 
fraternity.  Located  in  different  camps  on 
many  questions,  these  men,  to  quote  Huxley, 
"came  to  love  each  other  like  brothers.  We 
all  expended  so  much  charity  that  had  it  been 
money  we  should  have  been  bankrupt." 

In    1862    Martineau    issued    a    critique    on 

'  Life  and  Letters  of  James  Martineau,  Vol.  II,  pp.  146-7. 
[155] 


James  Martineau 

Spencer's  First  Principles,  in  1863  another  on 
Renan's  Life  of  Jesus,  and  in  1874  appeared  a 
new  edition  of  Hymns  of  Praise  and  Prayer. 
His  indebtedness  to  the  poetry  and  devotional 
literature  of  the  Church  was  dwelt  upon  in  a 
letter  he  addressed  to  the  Rev.  S.  D.  I.  Mac- 
Donald  in  1859,  and  also  in  the  preface  to  the 
book.  *'I  am  constrained  to  say  that  neither 
my  intellectual  preference  nor  my  moral  admira- 
tion goes  heartily  with  the  Unitarian  heroes, 
sects,  or  productions  of  any  age.  Ebionites, 
Arians,  Socinians,  all  seem  to  me  to  con- 
trast unfavorably  with  their  opponents,  and 
to  exhibit  a  type  of  thought  and  character  far 
less  worthy,  on  the  whole,  of  the  true  genius  of 
Christianity.  ...  In  devotional  literature  and 
religious  thought  I  find  nothing  of  ours  that 
does  not  pale  before  Augustine,  Tauler,  and 
Pascal.  And  in  the  poetry  of  the  Church  it  is 
the  Latin  or  the  German  hymns,  or  the  lines 
of  Charles  Wesley  or  of  Keble,  that  fasten  on 
my  memory  and  heart,  and  make  all  else  seem 
poor  and  cold.  .  .  .  To  be  torn  away  from  the 
great  company  I  have  named,  and  transferred 
to  the  ranks  which  command  a  far  fainter 
allegiance,  is  an  unnatural  and  for  me  an  in- 
admissible fate.  .  .  .  For  myself  both  con- 
viction and  feeling  keep  me  close  to  the  poetry 
and  piety  of  Christendom.  It  is  my  native 
air,  and  in  no  other  can  I  breathe;  and  wherever 
it  passes,  it  so  mellows  the  soil  and  feeds  the 
f  15G1 


James  M  ar  tin  e  au 

roots  of  character,  and  nurtures  such  grace  and 
balance  of  affection,  that  for  any  climate  simi- 
larly rich  in  elements  of  perfect  life  I  look  in 
vain  elsewhere."  In  1876  the  first  series  of 
Hours  of  Thought  was  published,  followed  by 
the  second  series  in  1879;  in  1882  came  the 
volume  on  Spinoza.  For  some  time  the  ma- 
terial ultimately  embodied  in  Types  of  Ethical 
Theory  had  been  taking  shape  in  his  mind,  and 
the  publication  of  this  splendid  contribution  to 
ethics  was  contemporary  with  his  retirement 
from  his  more  public  life.  But  his  activities  as 
a  writer  were  never  more  manifest  than  after 
this  occurrence.  The  Study  of  Religion  ap- 
peared in  1888,  and  The  Seat  of  Authority  in 
Religion  was  given  to  the  world  in  1890,  when 
the  author  was  eighty -five  years  old.  Even 
this  advanced  age  did  not  retard  his  marvelously 
preserved  powers.  Four  volumes  of  Essays, 
Reviews,  and  Addresses  were  subsequently  sent 
forth,  and  later  still  a  collection  of  Home 
Prayers,  which  he  described  as  the  last  book  he 
would  offer  to  the  reading  public. 

He  resigned  his  principalship  of  the  College 
in  1885,  and  the  fifteen  years  left  to  him  were 
as  notable  for  his  physical  alertness  and  activ- 
ity as  for  the  literary  output  we  have  indi- 
cated. He  had  always  been  a  vigorous 
walker;  and  when  the  Rev.  O.  B.  Frothingham 
called  upon  him,  Martineau,  who  was  then 
seventy-five,  proposed  a  nine-mile  tramp  across 
[1571 


James  M  artine  au 

country,  with  a  mountain  climb  thrown  in. 
When  he  was  eighty-eight,  his  Hthe  form  was 
frequently  seen  as  he  threaded  his  way  among 
the  vehicles  of  the  crowded  London  streets,  and 
not  until  he  was  ninety  could  he  be  persuaded 
to  refrain  from  jumping  off  omnibuses  in  mo- 
tion. He  was  naturally  austere  in  his  regard 
for  life  and  duty,  with  more  care  for  conscience 
than  for  the  surface  raptures  of  emotion;  but 
the  light  within  and  the  love  and  regard  around 
him  made  him  serenely  bright  and  cheerful, 
and  he  said,  "I  think  nothing  more  delightful 
than  the  first  step  into  my  ninetieth  year." 
On  his  eighty-third  birthday  he  received  a  con- 
gratulatory address,  signed  by  six  hundred  and 
forty-nine  of  the  most  renowned  men  then 
living,  including,  besides  some  we  have  already 
named,  Robert  Browning,  Max  Miiller,  Jowett 
of  Balliol,  Sir  John  Lubbock,^  W.  H.  Lecky, 
James  Russell  Lowell,  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes, 
Phillips  Brooks,  and  Ernest  Renan.  The  in- 
scription sums  up  the  story:  "We  admire 
the  simple  record  of  a  long  life  passed  in  the 
strenuous  fulfilment  of  duty,  in  preaching,  in 
teaching  the  young  of  both  sexes,  in  writing 
books  of  permanent  value;  a  life  which  has 
never  been  distracted  by  controversy,  and  in 
which  personal  interests  and  ambitions  have 
never  been  allowed  a  place."  That  presence 
of  God,  which  had  been  the  mainstay  of  his 

*  Now  Lord  Avebury. 
[158] 


James   M  artine  au 

honored  way,  and  the  theme  of  all  his  writings 
and  preaching,  was  entered  by  him  in  its  com- 
plete fulness  on  January  11,  1900,  at  the  ripe 
age  of  ninety-five. 

II 

The  description  of  Dr.  Martineau  as  an  in- 
tellectual aristocrat,  whose  works  are  not  avail- 
able for  the  ordinary  individual,  is  misleading. 
Even  those  which  require  some  previous  knowl- 
edge of  the  subject  dealt  with  are  so  suggestive 
that  few  can  fail  to  receive  lasting  benefit  from 
their  perusal.  His  sermons  are  accessible  to  all; 
no  one  indeed  can  read  them  without  having 
the  love  of  whatever  is  noble  confirmed  and 
the  spiritual  sensibilities  quickened.  Yet  their 
beauty,  fidelity,  and  dignity  would  not  have 
been  so  conspicuous  or  so  impressive  without 
his  profound  and  reverent  study  of  ethics  and 
philosophy.  He  never  catered  to  the  sluggish 
mind;  he  believed,  and  he  endeavored  to  per- 
suade others  to  believe,  that  "in  the  soul  of 
religion  the  apprehension  of  truth  and  the 
enthusiasm  of  devotion  inseparably  blend." 
The  sources  of  sustenance  underlying  Mar- 
tineau's  exquisite  discourses  were  his  clear 
and  sustained  thinking  on  the  mysteries  and 
compensations  of  life,  and  his  suffusion  of  its 
rational  elements  with  the  glow  of  a  chaste 
imagination  and  the  warmth  of  a  living  heart. 
These  equalities  found  their  expression  in  a  style 
[1591 


James   M  ar  tin  e  au 

which  was  at  once  their  servant  and  their  friend  ; 
a  style  which  gives  inspiration  to  the  spirit 
and  leaves  music  in  the  memory.  My  former 
teacher,  the  Rev.  Dr.  W.  T.  Davison,  in  an 
able  discussion  of  Martineau,  speaks  of  this 
style  as  entirely  his  own.  "If  he  was  not  born 
with  it  and  did  not  lisp  it  in  his  cradle,  he 
seems  to  have  spoken  and  written  in  it  from 
early  youth  when  his  mind  was  formed,  to 
have  employed  it  whenever  he  spoke,  to  have 
written  his  most  friendly  letters  in  it,  and  to 
have  preserved  it  unaltered,  unwavering  in  its 
stateliness,  undimmed  in  its  brilliance,  to  the 
very  end.  If  Gibbon  marches  and  Macaulay 
trots,  Martineau  now  exhibits  the  army  in  the 
splendors  of  parade  and  now  in  the  sweep  of  a 
cavalry  charge.  He  combines  strength  and 
grace;  his  thought  is  lofty,  his  touch  discrimi- 
nating, his  argument  close  and  keen,  his  defini- 
tion accurate,  his  words  express  with  delicate 
suppleness  all  the  movements  of  a  subtle  and 
rapid  and  powerful  mind."^  Many  sentences 
may  be  quoted  which  linger  with  us,  but  a  few 
must  suffice.  "No  grief  deserves  such  pity  as 
the  hopeless  privations  of  a  scornful  heart." 
"God  has  so  arranged  the  chronometry  of  our 
spirits  that  there  shall  be  thousands  of  silent 
moments  between  the  striking  hours."  "Man, 
the  self-conscious  animal,  is  the  saddest  spec- 
tacle in  creation;  man,  the  self-conscious  Chris- 

*  See  London  Quarterly  Review,  April,  1903. 

[1601 


James  M  artine  au 

tian,  one  of  the  noblest."  "Reflecting  vitality 
is  hypochondria  and  disease;  reflecting  spiritu- 
ality is  clearness  and  strength."  "To  give  to 
God  something  that  we  have  is  heathen;  to 
offer  Him  what  we  do  is  Jewish;  to  surrender 
to  Him  what  we  are  is  Christian." 

Martineau's  ethical  teaching  was  based  on 
the  innate  goodness  of  human  nature,  whose 
spiritual  experiences  antedate  any  formal  state- 
ment of  religious  truth.  This  position  is  in 
direct  opposition  to  the  dogma  of  original  sin. 
To  him  a  child  was  God's  offspring,  and  lives 
and  moves  and  has  its  being  in  the  Divine 
before  it  arrives  at  a  conscious  apprehension 
of  its  inheritance.  It  has  a  native  sensi  of 
right  and  wrong;  it  seldom  requires  to  be  led; 
we  have  but  to  offer  the  highest  and  the  best 
to  the  young,  and  they  will  act  upon  it,  and  be 
filled  with  a  real  love  for  its  beauty  and  praise. 
To  demand  of  them  a  consciousness  of  sin  and 
ruin  was  to  him  a  policy  both  erroneous  and 
mischievous.  Theories  of  rewards  and  punish- 
ments, pleasure  and  profit  were  injurious  rather 
than  helpful  to  virtuous  action  and  nobility  of 
life.  The  instructor  should  attach  the  child's 
inborn  sense  of  righteousness  to  legitimate  and 
clear  objects  of  faith.  The  unadulterated  con- 
science of  youth  will  answer  of  itself  to  the 
reality  and  holiness  which  are  in  the  Creator 
and  His  creation.  The  beliefs  of  adults  —  be- 
liefs which  result  from  older  and  less  fortu- 
[1611 


James   M  artin  e  au 

nate  experiences  —  are  extraneous  to  the  child's 
mind,  and  should  not  be  forced  upon  it.  They 
do  not  touch  the  religious  problems  of  the  im- 
mature, and  they  inevitably  mislead  them.  The 
suppressive  and  negative  treatment  of  human 
nature,  whether  in  infants  or  adults,  was 
replaced  in  Martineau's  system  by  an  expan- 
sive and  positive  treatment,  which  allowed  for 
the  free  play  of  inherent  virtues.  His  advo- 
cacy of  these  tenets  had  a  weighty  influence  in 
England  and  America.  Their  suitability  as  a 
means  of  development  is  now  more  fully 
recognized,  and  they  have  affected  the  recon- 
structive period  of  Bible  School  methods,  as 
well*  as  the  remodeling  of  theology  and  hym- 
nology.  Horace  Bushnell  was  another  pioneer, 
who,  by  his  teachings  on  Christian  nurture  for 
the  young,  did  almost  more  than  Martineau  to 
give  practical  effect  to  what  many  regarded  as  a 
pestilential  error.  The  conception  of  the  youth- 
ful soul  as  a  pure  and  undefiled  arbiter  of  the 
proper  scope  and  objects  of  its  own  faith,  able 
with  the  dawn  of  consciousness  intuitively  to 
recognize  and  obey  them,  came  as  a  distinct 
shock  to  the  Evangelicals.  They  deeply  dis- 
trusted salvation  by  education,  and  preferred 
regeneration  as  an  unmistakable  revolution  in 
the  sinful  and  fallen  spiritual  nature.  They 
contended  that  such  teaching  as  Martineau's 
ignored  the  sinister  realities  of  evil,  and  could 
not  account  for  the  ominous  facts  of  human 
[1621 


James  M  artine  au 

life.  They  refused  to  admit  the  superiority  of 
the  child  nature  to  the  doctrines  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, or  its  right  to  judge  them  by  what  Mar- 
tineau  defines  as  the  "voice  of  the  living  God 
within  the  child."  He  affirmed  that  the  greatest 
of  all  books  for  the  moral  and  spiritual  training 
of  youth  was  the  Bible,  and  that  the  response 
of  the  voice  within  was  evoked  by  the  applica- 
tion of  the  truth  the  Bible  contained.  But  it 
was  not  dependent  on  it;  indeed,  the  Bible  was 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  externalized 
conscience  of  the  Hebrew  race,  and,  while  he 
venerated  it,  he  held  it  subordinate  to  that 
moral  sense  of  which  it  was  the  expression. 
The  seat  of  authority  in  religion  and  etjiics  was 
native  and  indestructible,  whether  in  children 
or  their  elders;  it  was  of  direct  divine  origin, 
and  must  be  carefully  distinguished  from  the 
"ecclesiastical  conscience"  which  had  been 
molded  by  tradition,  theology,  and  the  Scrip- 
tures. 

All  this  is  introductory  to  the  intuitional 
theory  of  ethics  upon  which  Martineau  sus- 
tained his  system,  and  from  the  foregoing  com- 
ments it  is  easy  to  see  what  direction  that 
system  would  take.  He  was  emphatic  in  his 
declaration  that  man's  moral  judgment  is  part 
of  his  original  nature,  requiring  no  extensive 
experience  or  sudden  conversion  for  its  rightful 
exercise.  The  approval  of  temperance,  truth- 
fulness, and  courage,  and  the  condemnation 
[163] 


James  M  artin  e  au 

of  the  reverse  qualities,  are  instinctive  and 
immediate.  The  abihty  to  arrive  at  these 
judgments  is  an  inherent  faculty,  not  to  be 
analyzed,  universal  in  extent,  and  the  gift  of 
God.  In  those  cases  where  there  is  a  conflict 
between  the  higher  and  lower  principles  of  life, 
conscience  acts  as  the  determinative  factor. 
The  conflict  may  wage  in  the  soul  of  the  most 
abject  heathen,  or  the  most  enlightened  saint. 
The  important  thing  is  not  the  plane  on  which 
the  struggle  is  waged,  but  how  it  is  waged  just 
where  men  are.  This  inner  vision  of  moral 
discernment  is  diametrically  opposed  to  the 
Utilitarianism  of  Bentham  and  Mill,  and  its 
statement  reveals  the  wide  breach  between  Mar- 
tineau  and  his  earlier  masters.  Their  ethics 
were  always  prudential;  they  carefully  noted 
the  results  of  any  action,  and  assigned  the  ethi- 
cal value  of  the  action  accordingly.  It  was 
right  or  wrong  as  it  tended  to  promote  pleasure 
or  pain.  When  individual  and  general  happi- 
ness was  the  experimental  outcome,  the  deed 
was  worthy;  when  otherwise,  it  was  unworthy. 
Martineau  carries  us  into  another  and  a  superior 
region.  He  begins  by  showing  that  "the  key 
to  the  ancient  philosophy  is  found  in  a  distinc- 
tion which  our  language  does  not  enable  us 
accurately  to  express  .  .  .  absolute  existence 
and  relative  phenomena."  ^  The  adjustment  of 
the  respective  rights  of  these  sole  claimants  of 

^  Types  of  Ethical  Theory,  Vol.  II,  p.  1. 

[164  1 


James  M  artine  au 

the  whole  sphere  of  things  was  the  problem  and 
the  task  of  the  Hellenic  schools.  But  under  all 
their  varieties  lay  the  twofold  distribution  of 
that  which  ever  is  and  that  which  transiently 
appears.  These  were  assumed  as  exhaustive 
and  ultimate.  They  were  also  omnipresent, 
and  there  was  no  dividing  line  between  the 
eternal  entities  and  the  successive  phenomena. 
Both  were  blended  in  every  nature,  whether 
human  or  external.  The  same  divine  element 
which  constituted  the  beauty,  truth,  and  good- 
ness of  the  Cosmos,  spread  into  the  human 
mind,  and  established  there  the  conscious  recog- 
nition of  beauty,  truth,  and  goodness.  Man 
was  but  a  part  and  member  of  the  universe, 
sharing  its  mixed  character,  and  standing  in  no 
antithetical  position  thereto.^ 

The  key  to  the  modern  philosophy  is  found 
in  a  different  distinction,  —  that  between  the 
subjective  and  the  objective,  between  the  mind  — 
the  constituted  seat  and  principle  of  thought  — 
and  the  scene  or  data  assigned  it  to  think.  And 
the  answers  to  the  endless  questions  of  the  Ego, 
or  the  Non-Ego,  are  idealistic  or  realistic,  "in 
proportion  as  'they'  give  ascendency  to  the 
former,  or  to  the  latter,  as  the  source  of  our 
cognitions."  Tliis  idealism  seeks  to  interpret 
the  world  through  man,  to  find  mind,  idea, 
spirit  in  all,  through  all,  over  all.  But  Mar- 
tineau  never  becomes  so  intellectual  in  interest, 

*  Types  of  Ethical  Theory,  Vol.  II,  p.  2. 
[165  1 


James  M  artine  au 

or  so  logical  in  method,  that  he  fails  in  doing 
full  justice  to  the  moral  or  religious  conscious- 
ness. Though  he  crosses  over  into  the  psycho- 
logical theory,  he  is  aware  that  this  of  itself 
does  not  fulfil  ethical  conditions.  Fichte's 
idealism  reduced  the  objective  standard  of 
moral  obligation  to  a  mere  modification  of  self, 
and  thus  dissipated  the  essence  of  imperative 
authority,  "which  ever  implies  a  law  above  and 
beyond  the  nature  summoned  to  obey  it." 
Hegel  regarded  the  philosophical  as  a  higher 
point  of  view  than  the  religious.  The  realities 
of  faith  and  reason  were  translated  by  the 
thoroughgoing  Hegelians  into  abstractions  of 
thought,  and  this  process  of  reduction  exer- 
cised a  detrimental  rather  than  a  salutary  in- 
fluence. To  thus  disown  all  reality  outside 
the  mind,  and  resolve  everything  into  a  sub- 
jective dream,  was  repulsive  to  Martineau. 
For  in  perception  and  in  conscience  there  is  a 
*'self"  and  an  ''other  than  self."  "In  percep- 
tion it  is  self  and  nature,  in  morals  it  is  self 
and  God,  which  stand  face  to  face  in  the  subjec- 
tive and  objective  antithesis."  No  monistic 
system  could  interpret,  from  any  starting-point, 
any  one  or  all  of  these  without  a  destructive 
handling  of  "the  facts  on  which  our  nature  and 
life  are  built."  Without  higher  objective  con- 
ditions nothing  is  binding  on  us.  "Conscience 
does  not  frame  the  law,  it  simply  reveals  the 
law,  that  holds  us."  Surely  that  which  it  dis- 
[166  1 


James   Martineau 

closes  is  the  regal  authority,  having,  as  Bishop 
Butler  argued,  a  further  authority  which  will 
presently  support  and  enforce  its  demands. 

Leslie  Stephen  speaks  slightingly  of  Mar- 
tineau's  central  doctrine  of  an  autonomous 
and  independent  conscience  —  a  faculty  which 
exists  as  a  primitive  and  elementary  instinct 
incapable  of  further  analysis  and  implanted  by 
God.  Under  the  pressure  of  the  evolutionary 
theory,  he  regards  the  speculation  as  erroneous 
and  liable  to  clash  with  the  results  of  scientific 
inquiry.  Martineau  asserts  that  such  results 
have  their  own  range  of  jurisdiction  which 
must  not  be  allowed  to  interfere  with  the  moral 
order.  These^boundaries  cannot  be  slurred  with- 
out confusion,  nor  a  provincial  law  enforced 
over  an  entire  spiritual  empire.  Sensational, 
intellectual,  and  sesthetical  differences  may  be 
really  moral  differences,  disguised  and  robbed 
of  their  standing  by  the  garnish  and  pretense. 
He  names  "the  scheme  of  Epicurus  and  Ben- 
tham,  which  elicits  the  moral  nature  from  the 
sentient;  that  of  Cudworth,  Clarke,  and  Price, 
which  makes  it  a  dependency  on  the  rational; 
that  of  Shaftesbury  and  Hutcheson,  which 
identifies  it  with  the  aesthetic."  ^ 

He  then  proceeds  to  discuss  the  moral  senti- 
ment in  the  light  of  its  own  experience,  and 
shows  how  this  visit  to  our  consciousness  of 
right  and  wrong  in  its  own  home  has  the  merit 

1  Types  of  Ethical  Theory,  Vol.  II,  p.  17. 

[167  1 


James  M  artine  au 

of  "compelling  us  to  look  it  full  in  the  face, 
and  take  distinct  notes  of  the  story  ft  tells 
of  itself."  The  fundamental  fact  of  ethics  is 
that  men  have  an  irresistible  tendency  to  aj)- 
prove  and  disapprove.  When  our  fellow  crea- 
tures are  in  question,  we  speak  of  their  morals; 
when,  however,  attention  is  focused  upon  our- 
selves, we  are  led  to  speak  of  our  duty.  In  this 
continuous  engagement,  we  judge  persons  and 
not  things.  We  visit  our  indignation  on  the 
man  who  steals  the  watch,  not  on  the  hand 
that  went  into  the  pocket.  The  external 
world  may  be  lifted  into  this  personal  element 
and  become  the  center  of  various  feelings;  but 
in  itself  it  is  perfectly  indifferent  to  conscience, 
and  any  application  of  ethical  terms  to  its 
phenomena  is  manifestly  inappropriate. 

Again,  the  inner  motive  of  an  action  is 
distinguished  from  its  outward  operation. 
Spencer  supports  Martineau's  plea;  ^  and  Leslie 
Stephen  goes  so  far  to  to  declare  that  "the 
clear  enunciation  of  this  principle  seems  to  be  a 
characteristic  of  all  great  moral  revelations. 
It  may  be  briefly  expressed  in  the  phrase  that 
"morality  is  internal."  "Be  this,"  not  "Do 
this,"  is  the  true  form  of  expression  of  the  moral 
law;  and  the  possibility  of  expressing  any  rule  in 
this  form  may  be  regarded  as  deciding  whether  it 
can  or  cannot  have  a  distinctly  moral  character.^ 

1  Data  of  Ethics,  Chap,  V,  Sec.  24,  p.  6 1. 

^  Science  of  Ethics,  Cliap.  IV,  Sec.  IG,  p.  155. 

[168  1 


James  M  artine  au 

It  is  not  by  outward  appearance  that  we  can 
judge  moral  action.  We  must  know  it  on  the 
inner  side,  and  only  thus  do  we  know  it  at  all. 
In  the  reduction  of  a  deed  to  its  elements,  the 
three  stages  James  Mill  indicated  are  quoted 
by  Martineau :  there  are  (1)  the  sentiments 
from  which  it  springs;  (2)  the  muscular  move- 
ments in  which  it  visibly  consists;  (3)  the 
consequences  in  which  it  issues.  Sever  the 
first,  and  the  other  two  lose  their  moral  quality; 
sever  the  other  two,  and  the  moral  quality 
remains.  It  is  obvious  that  good  or  evil  cannot 
be  attached  to  muscular  movement  or  conse- 
quences, but  only  to  the  cause  of  both  in  the 
underlying  sentiment.  The  student  of  Chris- 
tianity does  not  need  to  be  reminded  of  the 
great  word  of  Jesus  on  this  theme.  Anger, 
malice  and  lust  may  lack  opportunity,  but  he 
who  would  and  could  not  is  called  to  account 
with  him  who  would  and  did.  And  in  a  higher 
than  the  ethical  region  the  doctrine  of  divine 
forgiveness  for  sin  is  established  within  us, 
and  our  reconciliation  with  God  is  realized, 
by  simple  inward  penitence,  faith,  and  love. 
Heavenly  relations  between  the  All-holy  Father 
and  the  guilty  yet  contrite  spirit  are  consum- 
mated in  the  inmost  recesses  of  the  heart.  The 
scale  of  external  benefits  accruing  from  any 
course  of  action  is  not  a  proper  standard  of 
estimate  for  such  a  course.  The  love  and 
fidelity  of  the  obscure,  whose  opportunities  are 
f  1G9  1 


James  M  artin  e  au 

small,  may  be  even  more  intense  and  devoted, 
and  we  are  to  "graduate  our  approval  by  the 
purity  of  the  source,  not  by  the  magnitude  of 
the  result."  Herein  Christian  ethics  have 
shared  the  distinctive  luster  of  the  system  of 
"inwardness"  from  which  they  spring.  And 
on  this  issue  they  carry  with  them  the  verdict 
of  our  moral  consciousness. 

Dr.  Martineau  pushes  the  examination  a  step 
farther.  He  asks  whom  we  first  judge,  our- 
selves or  others.^  He  believes  the  answer  is  of 
prime  importance,  and  that  it  is  one  of  the 
surest  tests  by  which  we  detect  a  true  theory  of 
ethics.  The  majority  of  English  moralists  are 
remiss  in  this  respect,  since  they  concur  in  say- 
ing that  judgment  begins  with  others  and  the 
habit  is  then  transferred  to  ourselves.^  W.  K. 
Clifford  and  Leslie  Stephen  held  that  "the 
conscience  is  the  utterance  of  the  public  spirit 
of  the  race,  ordering  us  to  obey  the  primary 
conditions  of  its  welfare."  Spencer  regarded 
the  moral  consciousness  as  wholly  a  social 
product  due  to  the  observed  or  experienced 
consequences  of  executed  action. ^  Martineau 
remained  true  to  his  theory  of  the  inner  spring 
of  action,  which  could  not  be  apprehended  by 
any  external  observation,  and  which  must  be 
known  only  from  within.  He  claimed  that 
we  judge  ourselves  first  and  judge  others  by 

1  Types  of  Ethical  Theory,  Vol.  II,  p.  27. 

2  Data  of  Ethics,  Chap.  VII,  Sec.  44,  p.  120. 

[1701 


James  M  artin  e  au 

ourselves.  Our  actual  knowledge  of  the  mo- 
tives of  others  is  necessarily  scanty.  We  con- 
demn brutality  in  another  because  we  could  not 
be  guilty  of  such  violence  without  being  faith- 
less to  our  better  self.  We  quickly  gather  by 
word,  look,  or  gesture  what  good  or  bad  pas- 
sions are  agitating  our  fellows.  But  unless  we 
had  first  experienced  these  emotions  ourselves 
they  would  be  meaningless  to  us.  And  in  pro- 
portion as  the  habitual  feelings  and  tastes  of 
those  around  us  are  foreign  to  our  own,  "do 
the  manners  which  express  them  become  un- 
intelligible or  displeasing."  The  man  who  is 
prone  to  suspect  treachery  or  fraud  in  others 
"is  little  likely  to  be  of  a  transparent  nature 
himself."  So  criticism,  like  charity,  begins  at 
home,  and  the  censorious  temper  is  an  artifice 
"by  which  we  suborn  a  true  light  to  give  us  a 
false  vision."  ^  We  pay  small  heed  to  society 
when  two  motives  are  in  conflict  within  us. 
We  may  have  respect  for  the  possible  outcome 
of  actions  directed  by  the  motives;  but  we 
know  without  the  word  of  others  which  is  the 
higher  motive,  and  we  know  it  immediately, 
and  why  it  should  govern  us.  He  would  guard 
this  statement  against  the  charge  that  it  makes 
for  isolated  units.  Though  our  moral  esti- 
mates originate  in  self-reflection,  the  "social 
sanction"  is  indispensable  to  their  development 
as  a  part  of  our  moral  nature.     The  visible 

1  Types  of  Ethical  Theory,  Vol.  II,  pp,  29,  30. 

[1711 


James  M  artin  e  au 

world  employs,  though  it  does  not  originate, 
our  perceptive  powers.  In  like  manner  our 
fellow  men  are  instrumental  in  discovering  us 
to  ourselves,  and  the  objective  conscience  em- 
bodied in  society  and  its  institutions  has  a 
restraining  and  an  educative  influence  for  the 
individual,  which  Martineau  both  appreciated 
and  enforced. 

In  laying  bare  the  process  of  decisions,  he 
arrives  at  three  factors  which  underlie  all  moral 
actions:  the  co-presence  of  motives,  the  conflict 
involved,  and  our  freedom  to  choose  between 
them.  The  maxim  of  Heraclitus  that  "strife 
is  the  father  of  all  things,"  though  mainly 
applied  by  him  to  the  objective  world,  has  a 
justifiable  reference  to  the  circumstances  of  our 
moral  life.  If  there  were  no  conflict  of  motives, 
the  first  to  appear  would  have  free  course  and 
project  itself  into  action  instantly.  As  it  is, 
we  have  the  power  to  determine  which  motive 
shall  govern  our  conduct,  and  this  freedom 
of  choice  is  a  fact  concerning  which  extended 
discussion  is  futile.  How  could  we  approve 
or  disapprove  of  any  one's  conduct  if  we  did 
not  believe  that  another  course  of  action  were 
possible  .f*^     There  are  many  arguments  against 

^ "  How  could  I  feel  '  morally '  toward  other  individuals 
if  I  knew  they  were  machines  and  nothing  more?  —  machines 
which  some  day  I  myself  mipht  he  able  to  construct  like  a  steam- 
engine?  To  a  convinced  theoretical  materialist  to  whom  his 
neighbour  is  a  real  mechanical  system,  morality  is  an  absurdity." 
Professor  Hans  Driesch,  The  Science  and  Philosophy  of  the 
Organism,  Vol.  II,  p.  358. 

[1721 


James  M  ar  tin  e  au 

the  freedom  of  the  will ;  but  experience  declares 
for  it,  and  the  welfare  of  society  demands  it. 
The  impulses  that  constantly  solicit  the  acqui- 
escence of  the  will  disclose  its  prevalence,  and 
the  keen  rivalry  of  their  competition  throws 
light  on  the  scale  of  excellence  in  conduct.  To 
make  gratification  in  any  way  the  criterion  of 
this  scale  of  excellence  is  virtually  to  hand  over 
morals  to  the  hierarchy  of  prudence  rather  than 
the  hierarchy  of  right.  Men  know  what  they 
like,  and  they  also  know  what  they  approve: 
to  arrange  everything  in  the  former  category  is 
a  hedonistic  order;  in  the  latter,  a  moral  one. 
Though  what  they  like  they  may  also  approve 
does  not  affect  this  reasoning.  The  self-con- 
scious apprehension  of  compared  springs  of 
action,  and  men's  responsibility  to  the  grada- 
tions of  their  moral  quality,  is  that  knowledge 
of  themselves  for  better  or  worse  which  is 
called  conscience.^  So  whenever  men  succumb 
to  temptation  they  identify  themselves  with 
the  worst  that  is  possible  to  them  at  the  mo- 
ment, and  true  repentance  is  always  accom- 
panied by  the  confession  that  there  is  no  excuse 
for  the  wrong-doing.  "Would  it  have  dried 
the  tears  of  Peter's  denial  to  be  told  that  he 
had  not  murdered  but  only  disowned  his 
Lord?"  There  may  be  other  passions  more 
seductive  and  base,  and  other  deeds  more  vile; 
but  these  do  not  enter  into  the  case.     The  true 

1  Types  of  Ethical  Theory,  Vol.  II,  p.  53. 
[173] 


James  M  ar  tin  e  au 

standard  of  comparison  is  in  men,  and  above 
men,  but  never  beneath  them.  Lesser  turpi- 
tude does  not  appear  more  favorable  because 
contrasted  with  greater.  They  are  judged  by 
the  principles  to  which  they  have  been  false; 
and  that  others  act  on  more  degenerate  levels, 
or  from  lower  motives,  furnishes  no  apology  for 
their  delinquency.  "We  are  sensible,"  says 
Martineau,  *'of  a  graduated  scale  among  our 
natural  principles,  quite  distinct  from  the  order 
of  their  intensity  and  irrespective  of  the  range 
of  their  external  effects."  It  is  identical  and 
constant  for  all  men,  no  accident  of  our  particu- 
lar personality,  but  one  scale  in  the  moral 
ascent  whether  we  think  of  the  Bushmen  of 
Africa  or  the  civilized  Occidentals.  They  are 
on  the  same  ladder  which  stretches  from  the 
solid  earth  into  infinitude.  Their  progress  up- 
ward is  attended  by  joys  and  sorrows,  successes 
and  failures  of  its  own.  Yet  it  is  doubtful  if 
any  attempt  to  promote  it  by  a  discreet  invest- 
ment of  energy  is  attended  with  good  results. 
"If  you  cannot  speak  home  to  the  conscience 
at  once,  condescend  to  no  lower  plea:  to  reach 
the  throne-room  of  the  soul,  Divine  and  holy 
things  must  pass  by  her  grand  and  royal  entry, 
and  will  refuse  to  creep  up  the  back  stairs  of 
greediness  and  gain.  Notwithstanding  all  that 
philosophers  have  said  about  the  agreement  of 
virtue  with  rational  self-interest,  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  their  reasonings  ever  recalled 
[17-ij 


James   Martineau 

by  a  single  step  any  wandering  will;  while  it  is 
notorious  that  the  rugged  earnestness  of  many 
a  preacher,  assuming  a  consciousness  of  sin  and 
speaking  to  nothing  else,  has  awakened  multi- 
tudes to  a  new  life,  and  carried  them  out  of 
their  former  nature.  In  short,  it  would  never 
have  been  prudent  to  do  right,  had  it  not  been 
something  infinitely  more."  ^  And  as  men 
ascend  in  civilization  their  outlook  becomes 
broader  and  the  moral  demands  increase. 
Lawlessness  and  its  baneful  results  take  on  a 
darker  hue  in  life's  exalted  stations.  When 
men  who  occupy  these  violate  their  trust,  the 
very  elevation  gives  impetus  to  their  descent, 
and  one  may  reflect  with  Milton's  Satan: 
"  No  wonder  fallen  such  a  pernicious  height."  ^ 

That  certain  acts  are  permissible  at  one  period 
which  are  outlawed  in  a  more  enlightened  age 
need  occasion  no  difficulty,  for  the  imperfect 
knowledge  of  the  earlier  stage  forbade  the  dis- 
covery of  any  higher  spring  of  action.  A  Greek 
would  have  been  at  a  loss  to  classify  the  forms 
of  virtue  which  are  typical  of  the  twentieth 
century.  The  range  of  self-control  has  widened 
immensely,  and  such  virtues  as  chastity  and 
temperance,  with  a  new  connotation  under  the 
Christian  regime,  are  more  than  any  others  the 
keystone  of  the  modern  social  organization. 
Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  Martineau 

1  Types  of  Ethical  Theory.  Vol.  II,  p.  77. 

2  See  also  St.  Luke's  Gospel  xii,  47,  48. 

fl75] 


James  M  artine  au 

invariably  lays  stress  on  the  sentiment  from 
which  motive  and  action  spring.  The  lowest 
sources  in  the  scale  are  censoriousness,  vindic- 
tiveness,  and  suspicion;  the  highest  are  rever- 
ence and  compassion.  It  is  indicative  of  the 
excellent  spirit  that  was  in  him  that  he  should 
have  placed  reverence  first,  and  nowhere  more 
than  in  our  own  Republic  should  this  priority 
be  pondered.  The  magnificent  rule  which 
crowns  this  summary  is  also  worthy  of  a  place 
in  every  man's  memory:  ''Every  action  is 
RIGHT,  which,  in  presence  oj  a  lower  principle, 
follows  a  higher:  every  action  is  wrong,  which,  in 
presence  of  a  higher  principle,  follows  a  lower."  ^ 

The  compassion  which  moved  John  Howard, 
Florence  Nightingale,  and  Abraham  Lincoln  to 
rescue  the  prisoner,  the  sick,  and  the  enslaved 
has  in  it  eternal  righteousness,  because  for  them 
it  meant  the  realization  of  their  highest  ideals 
of  life  and  the  utmost  personal  sacrifice  for 
their  accomplishment.  Such  examples  adorn 
the  ethical  message  we  are  here  considering,  and 
in  itself  it  is  a  grateful  contrast  to  the  Utili- 
tarianism of  the  preceding  lecture.  It  shows 
the  indescribable  value  of  Martineau  as  a  stimu- 
lating guide  in  matters  of  conduct,  a  counselor 
whose  utterances  irradiate  many  perplexing  ques- 
tions. When  he  tells  us  that  ethical  judgments 
have  to  be  made  quite  as  often  between  two 
orders  of  goodness  as  between  actual  good  and 

1  Types  of  Ethical  Theory,  Vol.  II,  p.  270. 

[176  1 


James  M  artine  au 

evil,  and  that  no  person  has  the  right  to  neglect 
the  highest  duties  confronting  him,  even  though 
this  neglect  is  concealed  under  the  performance 
of  lower  ones,  he  supplies  the  preacher  of 
righteousness  with  a  timely  homily  from  the 
Scripture,  "These  ought  ye  to  have  done,  and 
not  to  leave  the  other  undone."  ^  Human  obli- 
gation to  be  and  to  do  the  best  we  know, 
under  all  possible  circumstances,  is  absolute 
and  endless.  God  expects  nothing  more  from 
a  man  than  his  duty,  but  that  includes  all 
he  can  ever  do.  The  false  merit  attached  to 
works  of  supererogation  is  annihilated  by  the 
ethical  infinitude  of  human  nature  and  the 
divine  perfection  that  governs  it.  Oar  best 
is  demanded  on  all  occasions;  and  when  we 
have  attempted  the  utmost,  we  are  still  un- 
profitable servants,  in  view  of  the  undischarged 
obligations  of  an  endless  development.^  Heroes 
and  heroines,  saints  and  martyrs,  leaders  and 
emancipators,  whose  story  lights  the  summit 
of  human  possibility,  have  only  fulfilled  God's 
expectation  of  them.  For  them  and  for  us 
Martineau's  great  ascription  is  true;  an  unex- 
plored height  and  depth  of  moral  grandeur, 
beauty,  and  achievement,  in  which  the  race 
is  to  be  absorbed  and  glorified:  "The  rule 
of  right,  the  symmetries  of  character,  the  re- 
quirements of  perfection,  are  no  provincialisms 

1  St.  Lukes  Gospel  xi,  42. 

^  See  also  St.  Luke's  Gospel  xvii,  10. 

[1771 


James  M  artin  e  a 


u 


of  this  planet:  they  are  known  among  the 
stars;  they  reign  beyond  Orion  and  the  South- 
ern Cross;  they  are  wherever  the  universal 
Spirit  is;  and  no  subject  mind,  though  it 
fly  on  one  track  forever,  can  escape  beyond 
their  bounds.  Just  as  the  arrival  of  light 
from  deeps  that  extinguish  parallax  bears  wit- 
ness to  the  same  ether  there  that  vibrates 
here,  and  its  spectrum  reports  that  one  chemis- 
try spans  the  interval,  so  does  the  law  of  right- 
eousness spring  from  its  earthly  base  and 
embrace  the  empire  of  the  heavens,  the  moment 
it  becomes  a  communion  between  the  heart  of 
man  and  the  life  of  God."  ^ 

1  A  Study  oj  Religion,  Vol.  I,  p.  26. 


[  178 


FIFTH  LECTURE 
JAMES   MARTINEAU 


"I  leave  the  'plain,  I  climb  the  height; 
No  branchy  thicket  shelter  yields; 
But  blessed  forms  in  whistling  storms 
Fly  o'er  waste  Jens  and  icindy  fields. 

I  muse  on  joy  that  will  not  cease, 
Pure  spaces  clothed  in  living  beams. 

Pure  lilies  of  eternal  peace. 

Whose  odours  haunt  my  dreams. 
******* 

The  clouds  are  broken  in  the  sky. 
And  thro'  the  mountain-walls 
A  rolling  organ-harmony 

Swells  up,  and  shakes  and  falls. 
Then  move  the  trees,  the  copses  nod. 
Wings  flutter,  voices  hover  clear: 
'0  just  and  faithful  knight  of  God! 
Ride  on!  the  prize  is  near.'" 

Sir  Galahad. — Tennyson 


JAMES   MARTINEAU 
PART  II 


The  point  of  convergence  for  the  religious 
teaching  of  Hegel,  Lotze,  and  Martineau  lay 
in  their  united  recognition  of  the  eternal 
presence  and  self-revelation  of  God  in  human 
consciousness.  Hegelianism  has  lost  ground 
in  recent  years  because  the  "  determinism " 
which  is  its  natural  corollary  minimizes  sin,  pre- 
cludes repentance,  and  weakens  moral  respon- 
sibility. It  also  fails  to  give  any  satisfactory 
account  of  personality,  and  furnishes  no  sub- 
stantial grounds  for  individual  immortality. 
Lotze's  Microcosmus  and  Martineau 's  Study 
of  Religion  have  much  more  in  common,  and 
the  latter  foresaw  that  they  may  eventually 
blend  in  the  advancing  tide  of  speculative 
thought.  He  spoke  of  Lotze  as  the  one  origi- 
nal contributor  to  the  solution  of  philosophical 
religious  problems  —  one  whose  constructive 
work  was  of  the  very  highest  and,  without 
qualification,  Christian.  Both  reached  the  same 
"belief  in  an  ever-living  God,  a  divine  mind 
and  will,  ruling  the  universe  and  holding  moral 
[1811 


James  M  artine  au 

relations  with  mankind."^  But  Lotze  declared 
himself  a  spiritual  monist,  by  which  he  meant 
that  there  is  only  one  substance  in  the  universe, 
spiritual  life  and  energy,  and  yet  that  the 
Eternal  One,  by  a  partial  differentiation  of  his 
own  essential  Being,  calls  into  existence  the 
world  of  nature  and  humanity.  While  God 
remains  immanent  in  all  His  creatures.  He 
gives  to  these  finite  and  dependent  exist- 
ences, in  progressive  degrees,  a  real  selfhood 
which  culminates  in  man  in  a  self-conscious- 
ness and  moral  freedom  that  enables  him  to 
know  and  even  to  resist  God.  John  Fiske 
has  advanced  practically  the  same  argument 
in  his  account  of  the  crowning  of  physical  with 
psychical  and  moral  evolution,  and  the  reve- 
lation by  God  in  the  completed  man  of  His 
own  presence  and  character.  On  the  other 
hand,  Martineau  affirmed  that  for  him  monism, 
whether  idealistic  or  materialistic,  was  tanta- 
mount to  a  denial  of  religion  —  at  any  rate  in 
its  logical  results,  though  not  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  those  who  held  it.  His  dualism  seems 
to  have  arisen  out  of  his  aversion  to  pantheism; 
he  persistently  declined  to  believe  in  the  iden- 
tical oneness  of  man  and  God,  either  here  or 
hereafter.  He  speaks  of  "the  sense  of  author- 
ity," and  says  that  if  it  means  anything,  "it 
means  the  discernment  of  something  higher 
than  we,  having  claims  on  our  self  —  therefore 

^  See  Martineau's  Lijc  and  Letters,  Vol.  II,  p.  410. 
[1821 


James  M  artin  e  au 

no  mere  part  of  it;  —  hovering  over  and  tran- 
scending our  personality,  though  also  mingling 
with  our  consciousness  and  manifested  through 
its  intimations."  ^  Men  cannot  interpret  this 
sentiment  within  their  own  limits;  they  are 
irresistibly  carried  on  to  the  recognition  of 
another  than  themselves,  One  who  has  moral 
affinity  with  them,  yet  solemn  rights  over  them. 
We  encounter  this  Objective  Authority  without 
quitting  the  center  of  our  own  consciousness. 
The  excellency  and  sanctity  which  He  recognizes 
and  reports  are  not  contingent  on  our  accidental 
apprehension;  they  have  their  seat  in  eternal 
reality,  they  hold  their  quality  wherever  found, 
and  the  revelation  of  their  authority  to  one 
mind  is  valid  for  all. 

Martineau  traces  the  pathway  from  the 
moral  consciousness  to  religious  apprehension, 
and  avows  that  every  man  is  permitted  to 
learn,  within  himself,  that  which  "bears  him 
out  of  himself,  and  raises  him  to  the  station  of 
the  Father  of  Spirits."  ^  A  Study  of  Religion 
written,  as  we  have  observed,  when  he  had  gone 
beyond  his  eightieth  year,  embodies  his  ripest 
meditations  on  the  all-important  theme.  Its 
bases  are  found  by  him,  in  the  native  sense  of 
man's  moral  responsibility  and  obligation.  He 
places  etliics  before  religion  inasmuch  as  the 
ethical  conscience  reveals  "the  presence  of  an 

'  Types  of  Ethical  Theonj,  Vol.  II,  p.  104. 
2  Ibid.,  Vol.  II,  p.  105. 

f  183  1 


James  M  artine  au 

authority  that  is  in  us,  but  superior  to  us,  and 
which  we  spontaneously  feel  has  a  right  to 
govern  us."  Thus  his  first  concern  is  for  the 
religion  of  the  conscience  rather  than  that  of  the 
cosmos.  In  the  stricter  sense  Martineau  is  a 
philosophical  theologian;  Lotze  a  philosopher 
proper,  the  mirror  of  whose  mind  reflected 
the  universe  as  few  have  done.  The  former 
is  primarily  an  ethical  and  religious  teacher 
whose  metaphysic  is  narrowed  by  his  beliefs 
on  those  issues;  the  latter  a  more  inclusive 
and  fundamental  thinker  whose  range  is  wider, 
deeper,  and  firmer  than  Martineau 's.  Accord- 
ing to  the  latter  our  moral  experience  not 
only  naturally  leads  us  toward  belief  in  a 
Supreme  and  Perfect  Being,  but  also  toward 
belief  in  personal  immortality.  These  intuitive 
apprehensions  are  in  every  man;  they  can  be 
reverenced  and  obeyed;  and  if  so,  our  loyalty 
to  them  is  rewarded  by  a  larger  insight  and  an 
enriched  knowledge.  In  God's  light  such  chil- 
dren of  His  will  see  light. 

But  they  may  also  be  thinned  out  by  critic- 
ally destructive  processes  until  they  become  a 
mere  delusion,  in  which  there  is  nothing  more 
than  disguised  self-interest  or  the  reflection  of 
a  prevalent  social  sentiment.  The  two  ten- 
dencies are  always  present  and  operative; 
"ethics  must  either  perfect  itself  in  religion  or 
disintegrate  itself  into  hedonism";  and  there 
is  "an  inevitable  gravitation  in  all  antitheo- 
f  184] 


James  Martineau 

logical  thinkers  toward  'the  greatest  happiness 
principle.'"  Further,  "if  the  moral  relations 
when  thus  displayed  'and  honored  by  us'  are 
ectypal  miniatures  of  eternal  realities  in  God, 
it  is  impossible  not  to  raise  the  question  of  their 
duration  in  us.  There  is  something  incongruous 
in  supposing  that  such  a  communion  on  our 
part  with  an  eternal  Being,  and  a  communion 
in  respect  of  eternal  verities  central  to  His 
essence,  should  have  just  begun  to  know  itself 
for  what  it  is,  and  then  be  extinguished."  The 
immortality  of  man  in  Martineau 's  thought  was 
coincident  with  another  leading  principle  of  his 
religious  system  —  "  the  Universal  Incarnation." 
He  states  his  position  thus:  "The  Incarna- 
tion is  true,  not  of  Christ  exclusively,  but  of 
Man  universally,  and  God  everlastingly.  He 
bends  into  the  human,  to  dwell  there;  and 
humanity  is  the  susceptible  organ  of  the 
divine.  And  the  spiritual  light  in  us  which 
forms  our  higher  life  is  'of  one  substance' 
(ofioova-Lov)  with  His  own  Righteousness,  —  its 
manifestation,  with  altered  essence  and  au- 
thority, on  the  theater  of  our  nature.  ...  Of 
this  grand  and  universal  truth  Christ  became 
the  revealer,  not  by  being  an  exceptional  per- 
sonage (who  could  be  a  rule  for  nothing),  but 
by  being  a  signal  instance  of  it  so  intense  and 
impressive  as  to  set  fire  to  every  veil  that 
would  longer  hide  it."     In  another  connection 

'  Essays,  Reviews,  and  Addresses,  Vol.  II,  pp.  •143-44-1. 
[185  1 


James  M  ar  tine  a 


u 


he  asks:  "Is  it  not  then  a  true  conception 
that  we  see  in  the  mind  of  Christ  the  very 
essence  of  the  mind  of  God,  in  what  He  loves 
and  requires  to  see  in  us  .  .  .  the  fihal  devo- 
tion, the  self-renunciation,  the  enthusiasm  for  all 
righteous  affections  which  constitutes  the  ethics 
of  all  worlds?  In  opening  to  us  the  coessen- 
tiality  with  God  through  His  own  personality 
did  He  show  us  what  is  true  of  His  own  individ- 
uality alone?  On  the  contrary,  He  stands  in 
virtue  of  it  as  the  spiritual  head  of  mankind, 
and  what  you  predicate  of  Him  in  actuality  is 
predicable  of  all  in  possibility.  This  interpre- 
tation of  His  life  on  earth  carries  the  divine 
essence  claimed  for  Him  into  our  nature  as  His 
brethren.  In  Him  as  our  representative  we 
learn  our  summons  and  receive  our  adoption  as 
children  of  God."  ^  By  virtue  of  this  living  union 
between  God  and  man,  His  highest  desires  and 
best  affections  are  divine  and  inspired  ;  they  are 
part  of  the  very  being  of  the  All-wise;  they 
are  His  perpetual  self -revelation  to  us ;  and  in 
them  is  contained  the  possibility  of  all  religion. 
It  is  necessary  to  show  here  that  Martineau's 
views  on  religion  underwent  considerable 
change.  He  began  where  his  first  guide  and 
teacher,  Dr.  Priestley,  had  ended;  for  Priestley, 
although  a  latitudinarian,  believed  in  the  value 
and  authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  as  a  divine 
revelation.     He    sought    the    confirmation    of 

^  Martineaus  Life  and  Letter.^,  Vol.  II,  p.  481. 
f  186  1 


James   M  ar  tin  e  au 

outward  standards  and  proofs  for  the  doctrine 
he  accepted;  and  Martineau  for  a  time  followed 
his  example.  In  the  address  he  delivered  before 
his  ordination  at  Dublin  he  declared  himself 
the  servant  of  revelation,  and  spoke  of  "Jesus 
Christ,  God's  well-beloved  Son."  He  said,  "I 
acknowledge  Him  as  the  Mediator  between 
God  and  man."  He  further  refers  to  "His 
exaltation  to  that  position  which  He  now  holds 
above  all  other  created  beings,  where  He  lives 
evermore,  and  from  which  He  shall  hereafter 
judge  the  world  in  righteousness.  .  .  .  Not  to 
honor  Him  as  we  honor  the  Father  is  to 
violate  our  allegiance  to  Him  as  the  great 
Captain  of  our  salvation."  But  Channing 
supplanted  Priestley  as  the  spiritual  director 
of  Martineau,  and  induced  him  to  lay  that 
stress  upon  conscience  and  the  hidden  man 
of  the  heart  which  now  took  the  place  of 
Priestley's  insistence  upon  external  credentials. 
Channing,  too,  was  deposed  when  other  dis- 
integrating influences  asserted  themselves,  and 
one  by  one  the  articles  of  Martineau's  original 
creed  disappeared.  Miracles  were  dispensed 
with;  the  resurrection  was  a  myth;  sin  as  a 
huge  racial  impediment  and  disaster  had  never 
been  accepted  by  him.  He  asserted  that  Jesus 
never  claimed  to  be  the  JNIessiah,  and  his  exami- 
nation of  the  Gospels  left  few  credible  frag- 
ments of  information  about  the  history  of  Jesus. 
In  1898  he  wrote:  "We  plainly  want  a  New 
[1871 


James  M  artine  au 

Reformation  to  give  us  a  religion  that  shall 
be  tenable  alike  by  the  natural  soul  and  by 
the  cultivated  mind  of  our  age;  and  it  can 
never  be  brought  to  the  birth  alive  out  of 
the  Messianic  preconceptions,  or  ecclesiastical 
dogmas,  or  physical  cosmogonies;  but  must  be 
drawn  fresh,  like  the  beatitudes,  from  the 
divine  experiences  of  the  Christlike  soul,  which 
are  self-evidencing  and  wait  for  no  visual 
miracle  to  vouch  them.  All  that  we  spirit- 
ually know  is  thus  given  us  in  the  person  of 
Jesus;  but  not  all  that  is  told  us  of  His  person 
is  of  this  character,  or  is  in  itself  credible;  and 
till  the  needful  discrimination  is  effected  be- 
tween these  two  elements,  our  present  Gospels 
will  often  mislead  us.  For  in  truth  they  are  but 
anonymous  traditions,  authentic  mixed  with 
unauthentic,  current  in  the  second  century."  ^ 

Dr.  Martineau  is  not  so  thorough  and  satis- 
factory in  his  treatment  of  biblical  exegesis 
and  the  New  Testament  literature  as  he  is  in 
philosophy  and  ethics.  The  touch  is  somewhat 
unfamiliar  and  the  dogmatic  hardness  assert- 
ive. His  great  reputation  finds  little  support 
in  some  of  his  statements  concerning  the 
sources  of  the  Christian  tradition.  The  pro- 
found thinker  is  lost  for  the  moment  in  the 
ardent  partizan.  The  variations  between  his 
earlier  and  later  utterances  seem  to  make  good 
the  charge  of  unstability;   but  while  conscious 

1  Life  and  Letters,  Vol.  II,  p.  244. 
f  188  1 


James  Martineau 

of  this,  he  explains  them  as  the  substitution 
"of  religion  at  first  hand,  straight  out  of  the 
immediate  interaction  between  the  soul  and 
God,  for  religion  at  second  hand,  fetched  by 
copying  out  of  anonymous  traditions  of  the 
eastern  Mediterranean  eighteen  centuries  ago"; 
and  he  adds,  "This  has  been  the  really  directing, 
though  hardly  conscious,  aim  of  my  responsible 
years  of  life."  Dr.  Davison  is  correct  in  his 
substantiation  of  Martineau's  own  statement 
that  here  are  two  religions.  For  the  sake  of 
clearness  let  us  remember  that  the  religion  of 
the  man  who  rejects  all  spiritual  authority 
but  that  of  his  own  reason  and  conscience  and 
the  religion  of  the  man  who  finds  in  Christ  a 
direct  revelation  from  God  are  not  two  forms 
of  one  religion;  they  are  indeed  two  religions, 
widely  separated  now,  and  likely  to  be  much 
more  widely  separated  in  the  not  distant 
future.  The  majority  of  men  grow  less  dog- 
matic as  they  approach  the  ripening  years.  In 
this  one  respect  Martineau  was  an  exception; 
and  it  is  the  earlier  Martineau  who  stands 
apart  from  his  articulated  system,  and  pleads 
for  the  spirit  within  the  wheels.  To  him  we 
turn  with  relief,  unwilling  that  the  worth  and 
inspiration  of  his  religious  experience,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  his  theological  utterance,  should 
be  lost  in  the  deepening  doubts  of  his  later 
years.  Here  we  would  fain  abide  wuth  him; 
and  if  one  apprehends  him  aright,  he  speaks 
f  1891 


James  Martineau 

more  freely  and  with  lesser  consciousness  of  a 
system  which  needs  defense.  He  looked  upon 
experience  as  the  true  test  of  religion  and  its 
legitimate  sphere  of  verification.  And  experi- 
ence meant  for  him  a  genuine  sense  of  present 
spiritual  union  and  reality  springing  from  indi- 
vidual surrender  to  God.  His  definition  of  this 
is  not  unlike  the  Evangelical  doctrine  of  conver- 
sion; it  implies  an  awakening  which  results 
in  the  consecration  of  life  and  all  its  powers. 
"The  moment  of  its  new  birth  is  the  discovery 
that  your  gleaming  is  the  everlasting  real:  no 
transparent  brush  of  a  fancied  angel's  wing, 
but  the  abiding  presence  and  persuasion  of 
the  soul  of  souls."  It  was  this  emphasis  on 
experience  which  led  him  to  say  that  the 
Methodists,  above  all  others,  ought  to  show  a 
ready  adaptability  to  the  changes  in  modern 
thought  on  account  of  the  faith  they  reposed 
in  their  consciousness  of  the  Divine  Presence. 
When  the  highest  we  know  becomes  more  than 
ideal;  when  men  are  so  vitally  brought  into 
contact  with  it  that  they  appropriate  it  as  a 
part  of  themselves,  they  unite  their  lives  with 
the  very  life  of  God,  and  are  a  part  of  that 
historic  sainthood  which  has  done  His  work 
in  the  world.  This  truth  and  its  meaning  for 
those  who  accept  and  use  it  has  a  noble  expres- 
sion in  Martineau's  parting  injunction  to  the 
Liverpool  congregation.  His  whole  word  and 
work  among  them,  he  avowed,  had  been  deter- 
f  190  1 


James  M  artine  au 

mined  by  his  deep  faith  in  "the  living  union  of 
God  with  humanity."  He  had  endeavored  to 
convince  his  people  that  God  is  in  direct  touch 
with  human  souls,  communes,  with  their  spirits, 
and  listens  to  their  prayers.  He  is  a  God  that 
is  not  only  far  off,  but  here;  He  can  be  seen 
and  met  on  earth.  He  is  not  only  in  the  "flash- 
ing scorn"  and  "bursting  frown  of  thunder," 
but  He  speaks  to  each  waiting  soul  in  His 
still  small  voice.  ''Here  is  the  dear  and  mighty 
God  at  home.  .  .  .  Day  by  day,  from  morn  to 
niglit,  under  our  roof  tree  and  out  upon  the  fields, 
in  the  mind  that  thinks,  in  the  heart  that 
aspires,  in  the  nation  that  strives  for  the  right, 
in  the  world  that  moves  on  its  course,  He  lives 
with  us,  and  manifests  himself  through  us,  with 
every  variety  of  good."  ^  Nor  were  such  senti- 
ments confined  to  his  sermons  and  addresses; 
they  permeate  all  his  works,  and  especially  the 
great  chapter  on  "Natural  and  Revealed  Re- 
ligion" contained  in  A  Study  of  Religion.  In 
this  he  shows  that  all  the  interpretations  of 
naturalistic  religion  empty  the  term  "religion" 
of  "every  idea  of  personal  and  moral  relation- 
ship between  the  human  soul  and  God."  He 
dwells  on  these  relations  continually,  and  even 
where  tlicy  appear  to  be  overshadowed  by  his 
philosophical  ideas  he  is  unconscious  of  the 
inconsistency. 

But    what   of    sin,    death,    and    the  future  ? 

^Essays,  Reviews,  and  Addresses,  Vol.  IV,  p.  5i\. 
[191] 


James  M  artine  au 

How  did  he  regard  these  ?  The  reply  is,  with  a 
sternness  which  no  serious  preacher  could  exceed. 
Mr.  R.  H.  Hutton  says  that  Martineau's  sermon 
on  Christ's  Treatment  of  Guilt  inspired  him  with 
"the  fear  of  hell."  One  passage  reads:  "In 
many  a  hospital  of  mental  disease  you  have 
doubtless  seen  a  melancholy  being,  pacing  to  and 
fro  with  rapid  strides  and  lost  to  everything 
around;  wringing  his  hands  in  incommunicable 
sufiFering,  and  letting  fall  a  low  mutter  rising 
quickly  into  the  shrill  cry ;  his  features  cut  with 
the  graver  of  sharp  anguish :  his  eyelids  drooping 
and  showering  ever  scalding  tears.  It  is  the 
maniac  of  remorse.  .  .  .  He  is  the  dread  type 
of  hell.  He  is  absolutely  sequestered,  as  many 
minds  may  be  hereafter,  incarcerated  alone  with 
his  memories  of  objects  and  unaware  of  time; 
and  every  guilty  soul  may  find  itself  standing 
alone  in  a  theater  peopled  with  the  collected 
images  of  the  ills  that  he  has  done;  and,  turn 
where  he  may,  the  features  he  has  made  sad 
with  grief,  the  eyes  he  has  lighted  with  passion, 
the  infant  faces  he  has  suffused  with  needless 
tears,  stare  upon  him  with  insufferable  fixed- 
ness." And  if  thus  the  past  be  truly  inde- 
structible ;  if  thus  its  fragments  may  be 
regathered;  if  its  details  of  evil  thought  and 
act  may  be  thus  brought  together  and  fused 
into  one  big  agony,  —  it  may  be  left  to  fools 
to  make  a  mock  of  sin.  ^Miatever  the  liberal 
theologians  have  said  about  sin  as  merely  a 
f  19^2  1 


James  M  artin  e  au 

mistake,  and  retribution  as  an  idea  culled  from 
the  ethics  of  the  nursery,  it  is  clear  that  he 
regarded  sin  as  a  terrible  fact,  to  be  followed 
by  a  suffering  which  the  sinner  has  wholly 
brought  upon  himself. 

It  was  his  genuine  sense  of  present  spiritual 
union  with  God,  of  the  fellowship  which 
springs  from  surrender  to  His  love  and  grace, 
of  the  hatefulness  of  sin  and  the  terror  of  its 
consequences,  that  made  Martineau  impatient 
with  the  sickly  talk  about  ideals  which  has 
become  the  commonplace  of  our  age.  "It 
is  well  to  remember  that,  so  long  as  they  are 
dreams  of  future  possibility  and  not  faiths  in 
present  realities,  .  .  .  they  have  no  more  solid- 
ity or  steadiness  than  floating  air-bubbles,  gay 
in  the  sunshine  and  broken  by  the  passing 
wind.  You  do  not  so  much  as  touch  the 
threshold  of  religion  so  long  as  you  are  detained 
by  the  phantoms  of  your  thought."  Men 
must  realize  their  divine  nature,  not  in  a  merely 
sympathetic  way,  but  as  an  organic  and 
organizing  conviction  ordering  all  their  life 
and  conduct;  and,  short  of  this,  there  is  no 
worthy  object  given  to  them,  they  have  not 
even  reached  the  specific  point  of  admiration. 
"\Yithin  the  limits  of  pure  sincerity  no  one  can 
worship  either  a  nature  beneath  him  or  an  idea 
within  him,  however  big  may  be  the  one  .  .  . 
and  however  fine  may  be  the  other."  ^ 

^ Martineau  s  Life  and  Letters,  Vol.  II,  pp.  418,  419. 
[193  1 


James  M  artin  e  au 

n 

All  religious  philosophies  are  the  attempt 
of  the  human  mind  to  discover  the  deeper 
foundations  of  being,  and  the  processes  by 
which  man  apprehends  the  truth,  and  by 
which  through  experience  the  Temple  of  Faith 
is  built.  In  prosecuting  his  researches  in  these 
problems  Martineau  evinced  a  profound  in- 
sight, coupled  with  an  imaginative  daring  and 
a  skill  in  the  arts  of  literary  craftsmanship 
which  give  his  works  unique  distinction.  The 
"Religion  of  Causation"  may  be  arrived  at 
from  the  ascertained  facts  of  science,  and  this 
gives  us  an  idea  of  God  as  the  Creator  of  all: 
but  the  result  is  derived,  not  immediate;  it  is 
logical,  not  intuitional;  and,  on  this  ground, 
for  him  it  loses  value.  He  goes  so  far  as 
to  reason  in  the  same  way  concerning  con- 
science, which  naturally  inclines  to  Theism, 
and  from  which  one  may  proceed  to  establish 
the  fact  of  an  All-righteous  Ruler.  This,  again, 
is  a  logical  via  media.  Neither  of  these  argu- 
ments from  science  or  conscience,  singly  or 
together,  gives  any  adequate  meaning  to  re- 
ligion. And  it  is  owing  to  their  deficiencies 
that  the  religion  of  the  spirit  demands  unham- 
pered communion  between  the  human  and  the 
divine,  an  intercourse  that  goes  beyond  the 
spheres  of  natural  and  even  moral  law.  Mar- 
tineau hardly  docs  justice  to  the  fact  that  any 
[194  1 


James   M  ar  tin  e  au 

religious  belief  —  whether  described  as  the  re- 
ligion of  conscience  or  of  causation,  whether 
immediate  or  derived  in  the  methods  of  its 
apprehension  and  appropriation  —  is  due  to  the 
all-pervading  life  of  God.  Granted  that  some 
men's  temperament  and  actual  pursuits  lead 
them  to  an  inferential  knowledge  of  God  reached 
by  argumentation,  is  He  not  their  guide  as  well 
as  their  goal?  Why  separate  God's  immediate 
presence  from  these  things  ?  He  is  the  God  of 
the  rationalizing  Aristotle  as  well  as  of  the  intui- 
tive Plato.  But  Martineau  had  a  deep  convic- 
tion that,  if  God  were  not  found  wuthin  the 
human  spirit,  He  would  not  be  found  beyond 
it;  and  also  a  fear  that,  under  much  prevalent 
rationalizing,  the  Blessed  Name,  so  personal 
and  real  to  him,  would  come  to  stand  for  the 
order  of  nature,  inviolable,  yet  blind.  Similarly 
the  moral  ideal  becomes  merely  human,  a  gen- 
eral conviction  of  what  ought  to  be;  and  as 
soon  as  the  living  intercourse  with  the  Divine 
is  forfeited,  this  ideal  loses  its  charm  and 
power.  In  those  churches  where  the  living 
and  immediate  presence  of  Jehovah  is  denied 
or  ignored,  the  worship  of  God  ceases,  and  dis- 
courses on  science,  art,  literature,  and  history 
usurp  the  place  of  genuine  devotion.  These 
are  praiseworthy  pursuits,  but  they  never  appear 
more  distasteful  than  when  presented  in  the 
threadbare  and  colorless  garments  of  a  Religion 
supposed  to  be  dead.  In  a  letter  to  the  Rev. 
f  195  1 


James  M  artine  au 

Charles  Wicksteed,  Nov.  20,  1876,  deploring 
the  general  trend  of  prevailing  Unitarianism,  he 
wrote:  "I  have  nearly  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  we  are  on  the  downward  path  and  nearing 
the  last  stage  of  our  religious  history.  Religion, 
once  drifting  away  from  the  Personality  of  God 
and  resolved  into  Moral  Idealism  (and  this  is 
the  tendency  with  our  young  men),  loses  all 
that  is  distinctive  and  melts  into  general  culture. 
From  this  fate  the  Churches  are  protected  which, 
finding  their  center  of  gravity  in  the  Incarna- 
tion, unite  the  Divine  and  the  Human  in  the 
representative  of  our  nature,  and  construe  our 
own  moral  phenomena  into  personal  relations 
with  the  All-holy  Mind.  I  see  in  this  a  germ 
of  f ruitf ulness ;  in  the  other,  only  a  spreading 
barrenness."  ^ 

The  tracing  of  will  as  the  one  force  in  the 
universe  is  a  fine  philosophical  performance,  yet 
glittering  with  those  sparkling  phrases  which 
darkened  the  discourse  by  reason  of  excessive 
light,  and  displaying  a  logic  that  makes  one 
smile  because  of  its  adroitness.  We  are  taken 
safely  through  deep  metaphysical  waters;  we 
do  battle  vicariously  with  Tyndall,  Huxley, 
Spencer,  and  the  other  critics  of  Theism;  we 
consider  the  pros  and  cons  of  every  dispute 
that  marked  the  nineteenth  century;  and  more 
often  than  not  we  say  "aye"  to  Martineau, 
True,  he  indulges  in  speculative  ventures  which 

^  Marlincau's  Life  and  Letters,  Vol.  II,  p.  32. 
[196  1 


James  Martineau 

do  not  convince  us,  as,  for  instance,  in  his  treat- 
ment of  the  alraightiness  and  omniscience  of 
God.  He  taught  that  the  term  "almighty"  is 
"  warranted  only  if  it  is  content  to  cover  all  the 
might  there  is ;  and  must  not  be  understood  to 
mean  mighty  for  absolutely  all  things."  Again, 
in  discussing  moral  evil,  he  says  that,  "notwith- 
standing the  supreme  causality  of  God,  it  is 
rigorously  true  that  only  in  a  very  restricted 
sense  can  He  be  held  the  author  of  moral  evil. 
He  is  no  doubt  the  source  of  its  possibility." 
As  a  sequel  to  these  views  he  held  the  one  on  the 
limitation  of  God's  knowledge;  for  he  claimed 
that  omniscience  has  limited  itself  with  regard 
to  the  details  of  human  action.  The  dualism 
of  Martineau  is  the  origin  of  these  defects 
in  his  Theism.  His  emphasis  on  the  person- 
ality and  the  will  of  man  is  so  strong  that  he 
is  obliged  to  make  room  for  their  original  actions 
by  modifying  the  all-power  and  all-knowledge 
of  the  Deity;  and  he  does  this  on  the  ground 
that  the  very  problem  of  knowledge,  as  solved 
by  the  best  minds,  demands  a  Me  and  a  not- 
Me,  not  only  now,  but  hereafter.  The  issue 
is  highly  speculative,  and  need  not  detain  us 
here;  it  is,  however,  an  illustration  of  the 
thoroughness  with  which  he  goes  to  the  root  of 
things  and  of  the  honesty  with  which  he  states 
his  conclusions.  We  do  not  wish  to  suggest  that 
jNIartineau's  pages  are  full  of  mediaeval  sub- 
tleties, but  simply  that  he  seldom  shirked  a  difB- 
[197  1 


James  M  artine  au 

culty   and   never   hesitated   to   pronounce   an 
opinion. 

His  great  service  to  Christianity  is  twofold: 
the  consoHdating  of  Theism  on  a  philosophical 
basis,  and  the  convincing  declaration  that  the 
self-revealing  presence  of  God  is  in  all  men. 
This  idea  was  never  absent  from  his  mind. 
To  him  it  was  the  one  important  thing,  and,  for 
the  sake  of  establishing  its  foundations  more 
firmly  than  before,  he  undertook  the  work  of 
defending  Theism  against  the  attacks  of  its 
enemies,  and  of  justifying  its  great  truths  in 
the  areas  of  reason.  Seldom  do  we  meet  in 
one  personality  a  union  of  the  preacher,  the 
literary  artist,  the  theologian,  and  the  philoso- 
pher ;  yet  these  qualities  were  strikingly  united 
in  James  Martineau.  Not  that  his  appeal 
was  addressed  to  all  men;  he  never  hoped  to 
do  so  much.  His  message,  as  we  have  hinted, 
was  defective  for  those  in  whom  vicious  and 
degenerate  impulses  prevail.  They  need  the 
regenerating  and  encompassing  power  of  a 
more  vital  and  complete  religion.  It  was  for 
such  sheep,  lost  and  shepherdless,  that  Christ 
Jesus  gave  Himself.  They  were  His  peculiar 
care,  and  in  their  behalf  He  proclaimed  a  gospel 
which  Martineau  did  not  fully  understand,  ex- 
pound, or  enforce,  although  he  faithfrlly  dis- 
charged the  duty  of  giving  Christianity  a 
more  adequate  philosophical  setting.  Had  he 
mingled  with  the  common  people  in  their 
f  198  1 


James  Martineau 

daily  struggle,  he  would  have  found  that  the 
actual  conditions  of  human  necessity  demand 
a  concrete  and  positive  evangel,  and  that  even 
in  other  and  higher  spheres  men  frequently 
conquer  not  so  much  by  native  intuitions  as 
by  the  divine  aggression  of  an  overwhelming 
and  transforming  power.  This  type  of  saint- 
hood, of  which  Paul,  Augustine,  Luther,  and 
Wesley  are  prominent  examples,  was  at  once 
transferred  from  the  kingdom  of  darkness  into 
that  of  light.  Nor  can  we  form  any  right 
estimate  of  Christian  teaching  unless  we  take 
our  stand  for  a  comprehensive  induction  which 
shall  cover  all  the  facts  of  that  historic  trans- 
ference. 

But  there  are  men  specially  called  to  think 
of  God,  freedom  and  Immortality,  and  among 
these  Martineau  will  take  a  high  place.  Amid 
the  jangle  of  conflicting  creeds  and  churches  he 
did  a  saving  work  by  enabling  many  to  plant 
their  feet  on  the  immovable  rock,  by  giving 
them  the  wisdom  of  things  in  their  true  pro- 
portion, and  by  sliowing  the  signs  of  genuine 
authority.  Popes  and  priesthoods,  Bible  su- 
premacies and  ecclesiastical  groups,  are  passed 
in  review,  until  he  arrives  at  the  soul  of  man 
himself,  l)y  which  at  times  he  seems  to  mean 
Emerson's  "oversoul,"  that  "vast,  living,  mov- 
ing, inspiring,  progressive  spirit  which  is  leading 
us  all  into  light,  wisdom,  and  truth."  It  has 
a  place  in  the  outer  world  of  nature,  but 
[  19'J  1 


James  M  artin  e  au 

chiefly  resides  in  man,  "whose  spirit  is  the 
audience-chamber  of  the  Eternal."  From  it 
sprang  all  religions,  literatures,  churches,  and 
creeds,  and  by  it  they  must  be  served  and 
made  effectual.  Men  ascend  to  the  heights 
and  descend  to  the  depths  in  search  of  a  resting- 
place  for  their  beliefs,  when  the  word  is  nigh 
them,  in  their  hearts  and  in  their  conscience, 
if  they  can  but  believe.  A  mother's  love,  he 
avers,  affords  a  truer  glimpse  of  God  than 
Calvin's  stern  and  elaborated  logic,  and  the 
purity  of  the  human  is  the  window  through 
which  men  see  the  Divine.  It  is  in  the  presence 
of  such  higher  natures  that  we  are  enabled  to 
stimulate  the  springs  of  action  till  they  become 
the  dynamic  of  a  realized  holiness  in  life  and 
deed. 

Ill 

In  some  respects  the  work  of  Schleiermacher 
in  Germany  was  paralleled  by  Martineau's 
work  in  England.  The  moral  sense  was  his 
favorite  subject  of  interpretation,  as  the  emo- 
tions were  of  Schleiermacher.  Neither  could 
conceive  of  religion  save  in  terms  of  the  sub- 
jective consciousness  and  apart  from  anything 
external.  The  mysticism  which  is  found  in 
Martineau's  life  and  philosophy,  bright,  clear, 
and  intellectual  though  they  are,  is  very  real, 
and  suggests  many  comparisons  with  the  famous 
German  preacher  and  theologian.  Martineau's 
[200  1 


James  M  artine  au 

philosophical  system  is  by  no  means  free  from 
difficulties,  as  we  have  seen;  and,  in  spite  of 
the  value  of  his  constructive  Theism,  he  can- 
not be  said  to  have  founded  a  new  school  of 
thought.  His  marvelous  play  of  rhetoric  is  em- 
ployed to  set  forth  the  older  ideas,  which  are 
displayed  to  the  utmost  advantage  in  his  pages. 
In  years  to  come  he  will  not  live  through  the 
philosophical  treatises,  although  they  will  be 
found  on  the  shelves  of  serious  students;  the 
books  which  will  bring  him  nearest  to  the 
hearts  of  Christian  people  are  his  devotional 
works.  These  volumes  are  the  output  of  a 
profound  mind  and  a  large  heart;  one  knows 
not  whether  the  feeling  is  deeper  than  the 
thought,  or  the  thought  deeper  than  the  feel- 
ing. And  if  the  instinctive  recognition  of  God 
and  truth  as  taught  by  him  is  mystic  rather 
than  rational  in  method,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  overestimate  the  corrective  value  of  so  elo- 
quent a  pleading  for  the  religion  of  the  heart 
as  contrasted  with  the  crudities  of  the  gospel  of 
"following  nature"  or  of  obeying  the  behests 
of  any  social  group.  He  lived  at  a  time  when 
science  in  some  associations  was  raising  its  head 
all  too  proudly,  and  what  it  did  not  scornfully 
despise  in  religion  was  left  to  the  sneers  of  a 
pseudo-philosophy.  Against  this  Goliath  the 
author  of  The  Seat  of  Authority  in  Religion 
was  a  valiant  David;  yet  his  significance  for 
the  future  does  not  consist  in  acute  arguments, 
[201] 


James   Martineau 

lofty  appeals,  or  chiseled  phrases,  but  in  his 
ability  to  arouse  the  dormant  consciousness 
of  the  Divine  within  us.  It  is  a  great  work 
to  save  some  superior  intellect  from  doubt  and 
despair,  and  this  Martineau  has  repeatedly  done. 
But  the  thoughtful  though  not  fastidiously  criti- 
cal reader  will  most  esteem  the  revelation  of 
the  inner  light  as  contained  in  Martineau's  ser- 
mons—  sermons  which  are  already  numbered 
among  the  treasures  of  devotional  literature. 

A  philosophy  is  sure  to  have  its  vulnerable 
parts.  Professor  Pattison  asserts  that  Mar- 
tineau's view  of  conscience  is  peculiar  and  now 
out  of  date;  while  Professor  Carpenter  suggests 
that  his  essential  work  as  a  thinker  was  done 
before  the  Origin  of  Species  appeared,  and  was  a 
brilliant  setting  of  previous  Scottish  intuition- 
alism. Even  Martineau  himself  admits  that 
metaphysics  only  reinstates  us  where  we  in- 
tuitively stood.  On  the  processes  of  conscience 
Martineau  may  be  out  of  date,  but  on  the  inner 
light  he  will  continue  to  live;  for  this  is  a  truth 
that  can  never  die,  from  it  we  feel  and  reason 
toward  the  living  Cause  and  the  living  Right- 
eousness. The  sense  of  obligation,  whith  is  the 
fundamental  ethical  fact,  is  also  the  chief  bond 
which  unites  morals  and  religion;  and  certain 
elements  of  our  own  consciousness  give  ground 
for  the  inference  that  all  power  and  perfection 
coalesce  in  a  personal  and  omnipotent  Being. 
This  intellectual  and  moral  rationalism  rests  on 
f  20^2  1 


James   Martineau 

our  intuitions,  and  the  very  constitution  of  the 
human  soul  provides  for  an  immediate  appre- 
hension of  the  Creator.  A  scrutiny  of  the  by- 
ways of  modern  theology  shows  that  these  ideas 
are  gaining  ground;  and  although  they  some- 
times assume  erratic  forms,  and  find  embodi- 
ment in  bizarre  language,  they  indicate  that 
what  is  called  "the  God  within"  is  only  a  popu- 
lar rendering  of  Martineau's  intuitionalism  and 
his  tcacliing  concerning  the  innate  goodness  of 
the  human  heart.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that 
fantasy  and  extravagance  should  invade  the 
realm  of  divine  truth;  but  no  period  has  been 
free  from  their  harmful  influences,  and  the 
presence  of  a  travesty  is,  after  all,  an  evidence 
that  the  reality  exists.  Whatever  defects  we 
think  we  see  in  the  teaching  of  James  Mar- 
tineau; as  a  man  of  God,  as  a  preacher  and 
writer,  as  an  honest  seeker  after  truth,  he  stands 
almost  peerless  among  his  contemporaries.  An 
American  minister  wrote  to  him  a  few  years 
before  his  death,  asking  him  how  in  old  age  he 
regarded  the  world  and  his  own  Church.  His 
reply  was  that,  had  he  to  live  by  sight  of  the 
prevailing  social  and  spiritual  tendencies,  he 
would  breathe  his  parting  word  more  in  tune 
with  Jeremiah  than  Isaiah,  He  had  less  and 
less  hope  every  year  of  Unitarianism  participa- 
ting in  the  future  of  English  religious  history. 
"But,"  he  continued,  "all  the  divine  possibili- 
ties remain  locked  in  our  humanity,  and  are 
f  ^203  1 


James     M  ar  tin  e  au 

sure,  either  here  or  there,  to  free  themselves  into 
realization.  Resting  in  this,  I  can  lay  to  sleep 
all  impatient  haste,  and  wait  His  time." 

Martineau's  life  was  in  many  ways  a  sus- 
tained and  noble  triumph.  He  struck  hard  and 
he  struck  home  at  the  materialism  which  was 
waning  when  his  chief  works  appeared.  He 
aided  the  evolutionary  theory  in  defeating  the 
cold  and  mechanical  Deism  of  the  early  nine- 
teenth century.  Although  he  contended  for  the 
divine  immanence,  he  never  lost  his  grasp  on 
the  transcendent  God.  His  Theism  suffered 
no  approach  to  Pantheism.  The  religious  his- 
tory of  mankind  is  indebted  to  his  positive 
teaching,  and  to  his  earnest  and  encouraging 
attitude  on  those  questions  which  must  always 
occupy  the  thought  of  men  and  women  who 
ponder  the  deep  things  of  God.  We  take  leave 
of  this  chosen  servant  of  the  Highest  Will  in  his 
own  words  —  words  in  which  he  argues  for 
the  life  of  immortality  beyond,  words  which 
have  a  direct  meaning  for  his  own  illustrious 
character  and  services: 

"I  do  not  know  that  there  is  anything  in 
nature  (unless  indeed  it  be  the  reputed  blotting 
out  of  suns  in  the  stellar  heavens)  which  can 
be  compared  in  wastefulness  with  the  extinction 
of  great  minds:  their  gathered  resources,  their 
matured  skill,  their  luminous  insight,  their 
unfailing  tact,  are  not  like  instincts  that  can 
be  handed  down;  they  are  absolutely  personal 
[204  1 


James  M  ar  tin  e  au 

and  inalienable,  grand  conditions  of  future 
power  unavailable  for  the  race,  and  perfect  for 
an  ulterior  growth  of  the  individual.  If  that 
growth  is  not  to  be,  the  most  brilliant  genius 
bursts  and  vanishes  as  a  firework  in  the  night. 
A  mind  of  balanced  and  finished  faculties  is  a 
production  at  once  of  infinite  delicacy  and  of 
most  enduring  constitution;  lodged  in  a  fast- 
perishing  organism,  it  is  like  a  perfect  set  of 
astronomical  instruments,  misplaced  in  an 
observatory  shaken  by  earthquakes  or  caving 
in  with  decay.  The  lenses  are  true,  the  mirrors 
without  a  speck,  the  movements  smooth,  the 
micrometers  exact:  what  shall  the  Master  do 
but  save  the  precious  system,  refined  with  so 
much  care,  and  build  for  it  a  new  house  that 
shall  be  founded  on  a  'rock'  ?" 


205 


SIXTH  LECTURE 
MATTHEW  ARNOLD 


God  knows  it,  I  am  with  you !     If  to  prize 
Those  virtues,  prized  and  practised  by  too  few. 
But  prized,  but  loved,  but  eminent  in  you, 
Man's  fundamental  life;  if  to  despise 
The  barren  optimistic  sophistries 
Of  comfortable  moles,  whom  what  they  do 
Teaches  the  limit  of  the  just  and  true 
(And  for  such  doing  they  require  not  eyes); 
If  sadness  at  the  long  heart-wasting  show 
Wherein  earth's  great  ones  are  disquieted; 
If  thoughts,  not  idle,  while  before  me  flow 
The  armies  of  the  homeless  and  unfed,  — 
If  these  are  yours,  if  this  is  what  you  are. 
Then  am  I  yours,  and  what  you  feel  I  share. 

Arnold.  —  To  a  Republican  Friend. 


MATTHEW  AKNOLD 
PART  I 


WHEN  Thomas  Arnold  became  a  candidate 
for  the  Head-Mastership  of  Rugby,  Dr. 
Hawkins,  provost  of  Oriel  College,  Oxford,  pre- 
dicted that  if  he  were  elected  "he  would  change 
the  face  of  education  all  through  the  public 
schools  of  England."  This  he  did,  not  so  much 
by  his  erudition  as  by  the  power  of  his  conta- 
gious personality.  The  morale  and  discipline 
of  his  pupils  made  Rugby  an  object-lesson  for 
all  similar  institutions,  and  when  men  spoke 
of  the  place  they  thought  of  Arnold.  Such 
celebrities  as  Dean  Stanley,  A.  H.  Clough, 
Thomas  Hughes,  and  his  own  son  Matthew, 
were  known  as  "Arnold's  men,"  —  a  sujfficient 
testimony  in  itself  to  the  weighty  influence  of 
the  teacher  who  impressed  himself  so  deeply 
upon  them.  In  his  later  life  he  was  appointed 
Regius  Professor  of  Modern  History  at  Oxford, 
where  his  lectures  attracted  considerable  atten- 
tion. He  held  authoritative  views  on  the 
general  state  of  the  nation  which  affected  the 
religion,  education,  and  politics  of  the  times. 
As  a  teacher  he  stood  high,  and  as  a  preacher 
[209  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

even  higher.  He  was  a  man  of  deep  feeling, 
great  dignity,  and  an  almost  overwhelming 
strength  of  nature.  Yet  that  nature  was 
ardent  and  affectionate,  and  animated  by  a 
keen  sense  of  justice.  He  was  singularly  pure 
in  motive  and  sincere  in  aim,  and  his  literary 
style  indicated  these  qualities.  It  was  manly 
and  robust,  the  fitting  expression  of  a  brilliant, 
learned,  and  generous  mind.  All  his  gifts 
were  concentrated  in  the  work  for  the  forma- 
tion of  the  character  of  the  youth  of  his 
country.  By  means  of  one  public  school  he 
changed  to  an  appreciable  degree  the  super- 
structure of  British  society,  and  that  change 
was  transmitted  in  a  measure  to  the  empire 
over  whose  destinies  Britain  presides. 

His  eldest  son,  Matthew,  was  born  on 
Christmas  eve,  1822,  at  Laleham  on  the  River 
Thames,  a  quiet  retreat  midway  between 
Staines  and  Chertsey.  Towering  beyond  these 
towns  is  the  bold  front  of  Windsor's  "sovran 
hill,"  crowned  with  the  royal  residence,  and 
looking  down  upon  Henry  VI's  famous  founda- 
tion of  Eton.  Arnold's  inherent  love  of  nature 
was  quickened  by  the  beautiful  pastoral  sce- 
nery of  the  Thames  valley.  He  visited  his 
birthplace  in  1848,  and  wrote  to  his  sister, 
"Yesterday  I  was  at  Chertsey,  the  poetic  town 
of  our  childhood.  ...  It  is  across  the  river, 
reached  by  no  bridges  and  roads,  but  by  the 
primitive  ferry,  the  meadow  path,  the  Abbey 
[210j 


Matthew   Arnold 

River  with  its  wooden  bridge,  and  the  narrow 
lane  by  the  old  wall." 

During  the  whole  of  his  life,  and  especially 
after  the  death  of  his  father,  the  remarkable 
character  and  gifts  of  Arnold's  mother  made 
her  the  chosen  companion  and  correspondent 
of  her  children.  Her  ancestral  home  was  at 
Fox  How  in  the  Lake  Country,  where  she 
spent  more  than  thirty  years  of  widowhood, 
in  close  proximity  to  Wordsworth  and  the 
rest  of  the  Lake  poets.  Matthew  naturally 
developed  a  warm  admiration  for  Wordsworth, 
and  in  later  life  he  became  his  penetrating  and 
sympathetic  interpreter. 

Beyond  this  bare  outline,  little  is  known 
of  Arnold's  schooldays  and  earlier  manhood. 
His  letters  are  the  only  sources  of  information; 
but  these  do  not  indulge  in  retrospect,  and 
before  his  thirtieth  year  they  supply  nothing 
of  moment.  Even  the  origin  of  his  first  poems 
is  shrouded  in  mystery,  and  it  is  now  impossible 
for  us  to  scan  the  psychological  background 
of  these  adventures  into  literature.  Begin- 
ning his  school  life  at  Laleham,  he  was  after- 
ward sent  to  Winchester,  and  in  August,  1837, 
followed  his  father  to  Rugby.  Here  he  obtained 
the  prize  for  his  poem  Alaric  at  Rome;  and  in 
1840  he  was  awarded  an  open  scholarship  at 
Balliol  College,  Oxford.  He  had  been  at  the 
LIniversity  only  one  year  when  the  lamented 
death  of  his  father  changed  in  many  respects 
[2111 


Matthew  Arnold 

the  current  of  his  Hfe.  It  has  been  suggested 
that  there  might  have  been  a  lack  of  intel- 
lectual sympathy  between  the  two;  but  this 
is  scarcely  worthy  of  credence,  for  it  is  extremely 
doubtful  whether  the  later  critic  of  dogma  could 
have  foreseen  at  such  an  early  period  the 
extent  to  which  his  independent  thought  would 
eventually  take  him.^  Certainly  the  references 
to  his  father  breathe  nothing  save  exceptional 
tenderness  and  filial  affection,  of  which  the 
poem  Rugby  Chapel  is  a  lasting  monument. 
Standing  before  his  father's  tomb,  he  asks  the 
question : 

"0  strong  soul,  by  what  shore 
Tarriest  thou  now?     For  that  force. 
Surely,  has  not  been  left  vain! 
Somewhere,  surely,  afar, 
In  the  sounding  labor-house  vast 
Of  being,  is  practised  that  strength. 
Zealous,  beneficent,  firm! 


And  through  thee  I  believe 

In  the  noble  and  great  who  are  gone; 

Pure  souls  honor'd  and  blest 

By  former  ages,  who  else — 

Such,  so  soulless,  so  poor, 

Is  the  race  of  men  whom  I  see — 

Seem'd  but  a  dream  of  the  heart, 

Seem'd  but  a  crj'  of  desire. 

Yes  !    I  believe  that  there  lived 

Others  like  thee  in  the  past. 

Not  like  the  men  of  the  crowd 

^Yho  all  round  me  to-day 

Bluster  or  cringe,  and  make  life 

^  See  W.  H.  Dawson's  Matthew  Arnold,  pp.  156-157. 
[212] 


Matthew  Arnold 

Hideous,  and  arid,  and  vile ; 
But  souls  temper'd  with  fire. 
Fervent,  heroic,  and  good, 
Helpers  and  friends  of  mankind." 

During  Arnold's  university  days  the  Trac- 
tarian  Movement  was  passing  into  the  troubled 
period  which  culminated  in  the  withdrawal  of 
John  Henry  Newman  from  the  Anglican 
Church.  To  quote  his  own  phrase,  Newman 
"was  upon  his  death-bed,"  so  far  as  member- 
ship in  that  communion  was  concerned.  This, 
however,  was  known  only  to  few,  and  a  certain 
awe  and  wonder  continued  to  encircle  the 
figure  of  the  great  preacher.  His  four-o'clock 
sermons  at  St.  Mary's  drew  the  University 
to  his  feet.  Arnold  watched  the  convulsion 
of  the  religious  life  of  the  Establishment  which 
followed  Newman's  retirement  to  Littlemore, 
without  evincing  any  marked  interest.  Doubt- 
less he  had  inherited  from  his  father  a  strong 
aversion  to  Newman  as  a  teacher  and  Trac- 
tarianism  as  a  movement.  His  chosen  friends 
in  college  were  John  Duke  Coleridge,  after- 
ward Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England,  and 
John  Campbell  Shairp,  the  author  of  an  excel- 
lent biography  of  Burns,  and  Principal  of  St. 
Andrews  University,  Scotland.  Of  the  Oxford 
Arnold  knew  seventy  years  ago  there  is  little 
left  to-day.  The  Royal  Commission  appointed 
in  1850  to  reform  the  Universities  ended  a  formal 
organization  which  had  been  in  existence  since 
[213  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

the  Middle  Ages.  But  Balliol  in  the  early 
forties,  as  now,  was  distinguished  for  its  in- 
tellectual activity;  and  its  Master,  Dr.  Jenkins, 
conserved  with  commendable  energy  the  highest 
interests  of  the  college. 

In  1843  Arnold  won  the  Newdigate  prize 
with  a  poem  on  Cromwell.  He  and  Tennyson 
reversed  the  rule  that  college  rewards  for  poetry 
do  not  fall  to  poets.  Yet  there  is  no  particular 
reason  why  Arnold  should  have  been  an  excep- 
tion so  far  as  the  merit  of  Cromwell  is  concerned; 
in  fact,  it  is  scarcely  equal  to  Alaric  at  Rome. 
The  Byronic  atmosphere  pervades  the  earlier 
poem,  and  a  Wordsworthian  flavor  is  distinctly 
perceptible  in  the  Newdigate;  but  we  search 
in  vain  for  any  throb  of  inspiration  in  the  undis- 
turbed serenity  of  these  youthful  rhymings. 
A  glimpse  of  Arnold's  university  days  is  ob- 
tained in  the  records  of  a  debating  society 
called  "The  Decade,"  the  rallying-ground  of  a 
small  coterie  of  controversialists  who,  to  quote 
the  words  of  one  of  them,  fought  to  the  stumps 
of  their  intellects.  As  a  student  he  did  only 
moderately  well;  but  his  strength  and  promise 
were  recognized  by  his  election  to  an  Oriel 
fellowship  in  1845,  an  honor  which  would  have 
gladdened  the  heart  of  his  father  had  he  lived 
to  see  it,  and  which  had  previously  been  be- 
stowed upon  that  father,  upon  Ne^\inan,  and 
Dean  Church.  He  shared  with  every  son  of 
Oxford  the  ardent  devotion  they  freely  give  to 
[214] 


Matthew  Arnold 

her,  and  he  expressed  it  in  a  memorable  pas- 
sage which  one  cannot  refrain  from  quoting  at 
length : 

"Beautiful  city!  so  venerable,  so  lovely, 
so  unravaged  by  the  fierce  intellectual  life  of 
our  century,  so  serene! 

*  There  are  our  young  barbarians,  all  at  play ! ' 

And  yet,  steeped  in  sentiment  as  she  lies, 
spreading  her  gardens  to  the  moonlight, 
and  whispering  from  her  towers  the  last  en- 
chantments of  the  Middle  Age,  who  will  deny 
that  Oxford,  by  her  ineffable  charm,  keeps 
ever  calling  us  nearer  to  the  true  goal  of  all 
of  us,  to  the  ideal,  to  perfection,  —  to  beauty, 
in  a  word,  which  is  only  truth  seen  from  another 
side?  —  nearer,  perhaps,  than  all  the  science 
of  Tubingen.  Adorable  dreamer,  whose  heart 
has  been  so  romantic!  who  hast  given  thyself 
so  prodigally,  given  thyself  to  sides  and  to 
heroes  not  mine,  only  never  to  the  Philistines! 
home  of  lost  causes,  and  forsaken  beliefs,  and 
unj)opular  names,  and  impossible  loyalties! 
what  example  could  ever  so  inspire  us  to  keep 
down  the  Philistine  in  ourselves,  what  teacher 
could  ever  so  save  us  from  that  bondage  to 
which  we  are  all  prone,  that  bondage  which 
Goethe,  in  his  incomparable  lines  on  the  death 
of  Schiller,  makes  it  his  friend's  highest  praise 
(and  nobly  did  Schiller  deserve  the  praise)  to 
have  left  miles  out  of  sight  behind  him;  —  the 
\  21o  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

bondage  of  '  was  uns  alle  bdndigt.  Das  Gemeine ! ' 
She  will  forgive  me,  even  if  I  have  unwittingly 
drawn  upon  her  a  shot  or  two  aimed  at  her  un- 
worthy son;  for  she  is  generous,  and  the  cause 
in  which  I  fight  is,  after  all,  hers.  Apparitions 
of  a  day,  what  is  our  puny  warfare  against  the 
Philistines,  compared  with  the  warfare  which 
this  queen  of  romance  has  been  waging  against 
them  for  centuries,  and  will  wage  after  we  are 
gone?"i 

Notwithstanding  this  outburst,  Oxford  and 
Arnold  were  meant  to  dwell  apart;  he  could 
not  content  himself  to  become  a  typical  college 
don.  He  was  too  much  a  lover  of  society,  his 
outlook  was  too  wide  and  varied,  his  interests 
too  numerous,  and  his  temper  too  anti-clerical 
for  this  sort  of  dignified  retirement.  The  posi- 
tion not  only  conflicted  with  his  inclinations, 
it  offended  his  pride.  His  self-consciousness 
clashed  with  the  calm,  majestic  predominance 
of  the  University,  and  his  restless  and  aspiring 
spirit  chafed  under  the  restraint  of  her  conserv- 
atism. He  obtained  a  classical  tutorship  at 
Rugby,  where  he  served  for  a  short  time  under 
Archibald  Campbell  Tait,  afterward  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury.  Thus  he  began,  in  his 
father's  school,  and  with  his  father's  successor, 
his  lifelong  connection  with  education.  In  1847 
he  acted  as  private  secretary  to  Lord  Lans- 
downe,  an  aristocratic  patron  of  young  men  of 

^  Preface  to  Essays  in  Criticism,  First  Series. 
[216  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

talent,  who  was  quick  to  recognize  the  parHa- 
mentary  ambitions  of  Macaiilay,  and  who  gave 
Arnold  the  only  start  in  life  he  owed  to  any  one 
beyond  himself.  In  1851  Lansdowne  secured 
for  him  an  appointment  as  Government  inspec- 
tor of  schools;  and  he  became  at  twenty-eight 
years  of  age,  what  he  afterward  remained,  prac- 
tically an  independent  man.  The  work  was 
uncongenial  and  the  remuneration  scanty;  yet 
he  could  make  a  considerable  reservation  of 
his  time  and  energy  for  literary  pursuits,  and 
on  the  whole  it  proved  sufficient  for  his  neces- 
sities. His  marriage  to  the  daughter  of  Mr. 
Justice  Wightman  followed  shortly  after  his 
appointment  to  the  inspectorship.  He  was 
called  to  the  Bar,  but  limited  his  legal  practice 
to  attending  the  interesting  cases  over  which 
his  father-in-law  presided.  The  remainder  of 
his  days  was  preempted  bj'  domestic  joys  and 
sorrows  and  the  duties  of  his  office.  He  was 
fortunate  in  that  he  could  arrange  at  will  the 
extent  of  his  employment;  and  while  he  would 
have  been  an  ideal  candidate  for  any  public 
office  which  would  have  left  him  freer  to  follow 
his  bent,  he  was  delivered  from  the  ill  fortune 
of  some  who  have  had  equal  gifts  and  less 
opportunity. 

II 

As  a  poet,  Arnold  wrote  in  a  period  of  poeti- 
cal restriction,  when  the  province  of  prose  had 
f  217  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

been  enlarged  by  such  picturesque  and  musical 
stylists  as  Landor,  Carlyle,  and  Ruskin.  This 
extension  marks  a  natural  development  of  lan- 
guage. Men  first  express  themselves  in  poetical 
terms,  later  in  those  of  prose,  and  afterward 
these  coalesce.  But  the  coalition  somewhat 
contracted  the  line  of  English  poetry.  This 
contraction  may  not  have  been  perceptible  at 
the  time,  for  it  is  only  when  an  age  has  gone 
forward  that  the  literature  which  reflects  it  can 
be  adequately  estimated.  It  is  therefore  pre- 
mature to  hazard  any  final  opinion  respecting 
Arnold's  rank  among  his  fellow  poets.  Pro- 
fessor R.  Y.  Tyrell  warns  us  against  such  hasty 
assignments  in  his  article  on  "Our  Debt  to 
Latin  Poetry  as  Distinguished  from  the  Greek." 
He  says:  "From  the  earliest  dawTi  of  letters  to 
the  incipient  decay  in  the  Silver  Age  we  meet 
with  formal  attestations,  and  from  good  au- 
thority too,  that  men  who  are  now  to  us  mere 
names  once  had  the  fame  of  a  Milton  or  a 
Tennyson.  Nepos  refers  to  a  poet  of  whom  he, 
a  responsible  critic,  is  able  to  say,  *I  can  well 
aflBrm  that  he  is  our  most  brilliant  poet  since 
Lucretius  and  Catullus.'  Of  whom  is  he  speak- 
ing? Of  one  Julius  Calidus,  of  whose  existence 
we  should  have  been  unaware  but  for  this  pas- 
sage. Tibullus,  who  ought  to  know,  tells  us 
that  no  one,  not  even  Virgil,  .  .  .  'came  nearer 
to  the  immortal  Homer'  than  one  Valgius.  But 
for  the  caprice  of  time  we  might  now  be  quot- 
[  218  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

ing  from  Calid  and  Valge  as  from  Lucan  and 
Virgil.  Thus  does  fame  scatter  with  indifferent 
hand  the  laurels  of  triumph  and  the  poppies  of 
oblivion."  ^  Chastened  by  the  reflections  this 
criticism  excites,  the  layman  in  literary  mat- 
ters can  do  little  except  name  Byron,  Shelley, 
Wordsworth,  Tennyson,  and  Browning  as  the 
representatives  in  that  great  succession  of  which 
Shakespeare  and  Milton  are  the  hierarchs.  How 
much  which  the  modern  group  has  written  will 
survive  must  be  left  to  the  cooler  judgment  of 
posterity.  Contemporary  opinions  upon  them 
may  be  reversed,  and  again  they  may  be  con- 
firmed and  even  increased.  The  order  of  their 
merit  cannot  be  settled  now;  we  cannot  even 
say  with  certainty  who  will  find  a  place  in  the 
lists  future  generations  will  endorse. 

So  far  as  Arnold  is  concerned,  he  impresses 
us  with  his  breadth,  for  he  toiled  in  every  field 
of  literature.  But  poetry  was  his  first  love,  and 
his  ideals  concerning  it  were  elevated.  His 
most  conspicuous  note  was  clearness;  "and 
to  clearness  he  added  singular  grace,  great 
skill  in  phrase-making,  great  aptitude  for 
beautiful  description,  perfect  naturalness,  abso- 
lute ease."  -  His  touch  has  delicacy  and  sub- 
dued charm;  but  his  verse  lacks  popular  fiber, 
because  he  is  swayed  by  ideas  rather  than 
by    sublime    moods.     He   defines   poetry  as  a 

^  Sec  Nineteenth  Centuri/,  April,  1911. 

2  G.  W.  E.  RussfU's,  Matthew  Arnold  (190-t).  p.  9. 

[2191 


Matthew  Arnold 

twofold  interpretation:  "it  interprets  by  ex- 
pressing with  magical  felicity  the  physiognomy 
and  movement  of  the  outer  world,"  and  by  ex- 
pressing "with  inspired  conviction  the  ideas 
and  laws  of  the  inward  world  of  man's  moral 
and  spiritual  life."  ^  That  he  did  not  round 
out  his  practice  to  the  boundaries  of  his  theory 
is  nothing  against  him;  nor  is  the  further  fact 
that  he  wrote  his  greatest  poem,  The  Scholar 
Gypsy,  when  he  was  thirty  years  of  age,  and 
that  after  1867,  when  New  Poems  appeared,  he 
wrote  poetry  sparingly.  The  height  of  his  ideals 
might  have  provoked  this  sterility,  although  it 
has  been  otherwise  explained.  His  friends  say 
that  the  elegiac  spirit,  which  was  his  special 
gift,  was  harassed  by  his  official  responsibilities; 
or,  again,  that  he  was  frozen  into  silence  by 
the  neglect  and  indifference  with  which  his 
verse  was  treated.  But  had  his  poetic  vein 
been  sufficiently  full-blooded,  it  should  have 
proved  superior  to  these  restraints.  His  was 
not  inevitable  poetry,  like  that  of  Burns, 
leaping  forth  and  submerging  all  obstacles;  it 
was  essentially  critical  in  soul  and  substance, 
and,  despite  the  exquisiteness  of  the  quality, 
the  flow  was  intermittent.  The  three  canons 
of  Milton,  that  poetry  should  be  simple,  sen- 
suous, and  passionate,  cannot  be  applied  to 
Arnold's   verse. 

He  disliked    romanticism,  and   deplored   its 

^  iDtroduction  to  Essays  in  Criticism,  First  Series. 
\  220  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

excess  in  the  early  nineteenth-century  poets. 
They  were  forced  to  indulge  in  it  to  cover  their 
impoverished  resources;  did  they  know  more, 
they  would  imagine  less.  In  regard  to  forms 
of  expression,  he  urged  that  there  was  no  surer 
test  of  excellent  poetry  than  constantly  to 
keep  in  one's  own  mind  the  choice  lines  of  the 
greater  poets,  and  to  apply  these  as  a  touch- 
stone to  other  claimants.  The  restrained  and 
severe  purity  of  his  diction  reveals  his  close 
observance  of  this  rule.  With  the  possible 
exception  of  Milton,  Arnold  was  better  ac- 
quainted with  the  best  that  poets  have  uttered 
from  Homer  downward  than  any  other  English 
author.  He  said  that  the  Byronic  school  had 
plenty  of  energy,  and  creative  force,  but  was 
not  sufficiently  aware  of  the  classical  poets  and 
dramatists.  This  cannot  be  charged  against  his 
work;  for  it  was  saturated  with  them,  so  much 
so  that  some  one  has  declared  a  classical  educa- 
tion necessary  to  understand  him.  This  is  an 
exaggeration;  yet,  unless  the  reader's  knowl- 
edge is  fairly  comprehensive  and  his  taste  for 
correct  and  applicable  speech  well  founded  and 
refined,  he  is  not  likely  to  enjoy  Arnold.  His 
chief  appeal  is  to  the  truly  educated;  to  those 
in  whom  the  fruits  of  knowledge  have  suf- 
ficiently ripened  to  enable  them  to  appreciate 
his  subtle  thought  and  delicate  shades  of  mean- 
ing. He  stands  in  the  nineteenth  century,  an 
entreating  mediator  between  the  ideals  and 
[2211 


Matthew   Arnold 

forms  of  Hellenic  thought  and  expression  and 
those  of  the  modern  period.  Sir  Henry  Maine's 
sweeping  assertion  that,  except  the  blind  forces 
of  nature,  nothing  moves  in  this  world  which 
is  not  Greek  in  its  origin,  would  not  have 
received  Arnold's  assent;  for  he  deplored  the 
prevalence  of  the  Hebraic  spirit.  In  so  far  as 
his  genius  permitted,  he  pealed  forth  at  inter- 
vals a  music  full  of  recurrent  significance  and 
echoing  the  best  traditions  of  the  Attic  masters. 
On  the  21st  of  July,  1849,  he  published  the 
Sonnet  Addressed  to  the  Hungarian  Nation. 
This  did  no  more  to  advance  his  standing  than 
Alaric  at  Rome  or  Cromwell  had  done  to  indi- 
cate his  powers.  The  Strayed  Reveler  and  Other 
Poems  appeared  in  the  same  year;  Empedocles 
on  Etna  in  1852;  and  the  first  volume  that  bore 
his  name  in  1853.  The  last  publication  was 
entitled  Poems;  it  was  a  reprint  of  the  former 
editions,  with  some  omissions  and  such  impor- 
tant additional  compositions  as  Sohrab  and 
Rustum,  The  Church  of  Brou,  Requiescat,  and 
The  Scholar  Gypsy.  These  poems  are  among 
the  best  products  of  the  intellectual  movement 
which  prevailed  from  1850  to  1870.  The  sense 
of  impending  change  was  then  everywhere 
present.  Science,  about  to  accept  evolution, 
was  awakening  from  its  dogmatic  slumber;  art 
was  reviving  under  the  influence  of  the  Pre- 
Raphaelites;  Anglican  ecclesiasticism  was  look- 
ing toward  mediievalism ;  and  English  thought 
f  222  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

was  dominated  by  the  German  philosophers. 
These  movements  weighed  down  the  poetry  of 
Arnold.  He  wrote  for  an  epoch  in  which  the 
current  doctrines  of  religion,  politics,  and  the 
social  system  were  alike  decaying;  and,  lack- 
ing the  confident  optimism  and  intellectual 
breadth  of  Browning,  he  stood  mournful  and 
mute  with  no  positive  message  for  his  age. 
It  was  a  time  when  there  was  no  shelter  to 
grow  ripe,  no  leisure  to  grow  wise.  The  con- 
flict and  complexity  oppressed  him;  and  while 
he  hoped  for  a  reconciliation  and  an  adjustment, 
it  was  in  a  melancholy  way,  and  he  offered  no 
solution  for  the  difficulties  of  the  situation. 
We  should  expect  to  find  that  his  tone  is 
in  harmony  with  these  conceptions,  refined, 
thoughtful,  sad.  And  so  it  is ;  even  Rugby 
Chapel  is  tinged  with  this  catholic  pensiveness. 
While  he  admired  W'ordsworth,  sharing  his 
love  of  nature  with  inborn  passion,  devoting 
one  of  the  best  of  his  critical  essays  to  him, 
and  making  the  finest  selection  from  his  poetry 
that  we  possess,  he  nevertheless  viewed  the 
calm  and  trust  of  the  Lake  Poet  as  an  aspira- 
tion rather  than  an  attainment  —  an  aspiration 
which  the  new  age  and  its  conditions  did  not 
favor.  His  famous  dictum  that  poetry  is  a 
criticism  of  life  may  be  construed  as  meaning 
that  poetry  is  the  crowning  fruit  of  a  criticism 
of  life,  and  consequently  that  the  value  of  his 
poetry  consists  in  the  truth  and  beauty  of 
[223  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

his  generalizations.^  These  are  filled  with  the 
yearning  desire  for  all  which  might  have  been. 
We  see  it  plainly  in  Resignation,  a  poem  of  his 
early  volume,  and  again  in  Stanzas  from  the 
Grande  Chartreuse. 

"Enough,  we  live!  —  and  if  a  life. 
With  large  results  so  little  rife. 
Though  bearable,  seems  hardly  worth 
This  pomp  of  worlds,  this  pain  of  birth ; 
Yet,  Fausta!  the  mute  turf  we  tread. 
The  solemn  hills  around  us  spread. 
This  stream  which  falls  incessantly. 
The  strange-scrawl'd  rocks,  the  lonely  sky. 
If  I  might  lend  their  life  a  voice. 
Seem  to  bear  rather  than  rejoice. 
And  even  could  the  intemperate  prayer 
Man  iterates,  while  these  forbear. 
For  movement,  for  an  ampler  sphere. 
Pierce  Fate's  impenetrable  ear; 
Not  milder  is  the  general  lot 
Because  our  spirits  have  forgot. 
In  action's  dizzying  eddy  whirl'd. 
The  something  that  infects  the  world."* 


Our  fathers  water'd  with  their  tears 

This  sea  of  time  whereon  we  sail; 

Their  voices  were  in  all  men's  ears 

Who  passed  within  their  puissant  hail. 

Still  the  same  ocean  round  us  raves. 

But  we  stand  mute,  and  watch  the  waves."' 

This  oppression  is  frequently  associated  with 
his  outlook  on 

1  Encydopwdia  Britannica,  11th  edition,  Vol.  II,  p.  638. 

2  The  Poetical  Works  of  Arnold  (1895),  p.  61. 

^  Ibid.,  Stanzas  from  the  Grande  Chartreuse,  pp.  3^1-322. 

f  224  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

"The  unplumbed,  salt,  estranging  sea,"' 

five  words  whose  haunting  beauty  can  hardly 
be  surpassed  in  any  language.  Its  falling 
tides  on  Dover  Beach  arouse  in  him  the  pain- 
ful sense  of  the  lessening  of  religious  faith: 

"The  Sea  of  Faith 
Was  once,  too,  at  the  full,  and  round  earth's  shore 
Lay  like  the  folds  of  a  bright  girdle  furl'd; 
But  now  I  only  hear 
Its  melancholy,  long,  withdrawing  roar, 
Retreating  to  the  breath 
Of  the  night-wind  down  the  vast  edges  drear 
And  naked  shingles  of  the  world."  * 

The  lucidity  and  thorough  craftsmanship  of 
Arnold's  poetry  could  not  overcome  the  dislike 
of  the  average  mind  for  such  an  attitude  as  is 
here  described.  Yet  better  things  might  have 
been  expected  from  the  scholarly  critics.  They 
should  have  seen  that  the  trend  of  his  nature 
compelled  him  to  say  much  that  was  as  un- 
welcome to  him  as  to  them.  For,  despite  his 
birth  and  training,  he  was  constitutionally  in- 
capable of  great  faith;  indeed,  life  would  have 
been  easier  for  him  had  such  not  been  the  case. 
He  showed  this  in  the  pain  his  doubts  created, 
and  in  the  sympathy  he  had  with  things  he 
could  not  accept.  But  he  refused  to  forsake 
the  path  over  which  there  shone  "the  high 
white  star  of  truth."  Right  or  wrong,  he  would 
not  play  false  with  reason  and  loyalty  as  he 

'  The  Poetical  J]'orks  of  Arnold,  To  Marguerite,  p.  198. 
2  Ibid.,  Dover  Beach  (1895),  p.  296. 

[225  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

understood  them.  If  the  critics  gave  him  little 
heed,  the  reading  public  gave  him  less.  Some 
of  his  best  work  was  contained  in  his  first 
two  volumes,  and  these  were  withdrawn  from 
circulation.  The  explanation  for  such  neglect 
is  found,  in  part,  in  the  decadent  state  of  English 
criticism  from  1825  to  1860.  This  decadence 
had  much  to  do  with  his  later  essays  in  the 
realm  of  criticism.  Others  quite  as  gifted  ex- 
perienced a  measure  of  the  same  ignorance  and 
misunderstanding.  Tennyson  was  slowly  and 
reluctantly  accepted  ;  Browning  for  a  long  time 
was  refused  a  hearing ;  Carlyle  could  make  no 
terms  with  the  older  stylists  and  so  he  defied 
them  all;  Ruskin  offended  the  young  arbiters 
of  prose  ;  George  Borrow's  Lavengro  went  a-beg- 
ging ;  and  FitzGerald's  Omar  Khayyam  was 
ignored. 

Professor  Saintsbury  considers  Arnold's  first 
volume,  though  unequal,  a  wonderful  produc- 
tion for  a  man  still  under  thirty.  Such  lines 
as  these  from  Mycerinus  — 

"And  prayers,  and  gifts,  and  tears,  are  fruitless  all, 
And  the  night  waxes,  and  the  shadows  fall"; 

and  the  less-quoted  ones  in  the  concluding 
portion  of  the  poem  — 

"While  the  dcep-hurnish'd  foliage  overhead 
Splinter 'd  the  silver  arrows  of  the  moon,"  — 

detain  us  by  their  authority.  The  sonnet  on 
Shakespeare  was  a  bold  attempt  which  nearly 

[226  1 


Matthew   Arnold 

succeeded.  The  second  volume  contained  two 
larger  and  more  ambitious  poems  and  thirty- 
three  smaller  ones,  of  which  two  were  never 
rejirinted.  It  was  again  a  varied  achievement, 
and  the  author  withdrew  it  shortly  after  pub- 
lication. The  memorial  verses  on  Wordsworth 
were  sufficient  in  themselves  to  give  dis- 
tinction to  the  book,  and  in  Summer  Night 
Arnold  won  a  triumph  over  himself.  His 
vague  agnosticism  was  swept  away  by  a  wave 
of  genuine  feeling.  Here  "the  lips  are  touched 
at  last ;  the  eyes  thoroughly  opened  to  see 
what  the  lips  shall  speak;  the  brain  almost 
unconsciously  frames  and  fills  the  adequate 
and  consistent  scheme  —  the  false  rhymes  are 
nowhere;  the  imperfect  phrases,  the  little  sham 
simplicities  or  pedantries,  hide  themselves,  and 
the  poet  is  free,  from  the  splendid  opening 
landscape,  through  the  meditative  exposition 
and  the  fine  picture  of  the  shipwreck,  to  the 
magnificent  final  invocation  of  the  'clearness 
divine.'"  1 

Space  forbids  any  extended  mention  of 
Sohrah  and  Rustum,  based  on  the  old  theme  of 
a  father  and  son  who  never  knew  each  other 
until  it  was  too  late,  and  whose  struggles  ended 
in  the  father's  enlightenment  and  consequent 
despair,  and  the  son's  acquiescence  in  his 
father's  will.  The  Rcquiescat,  notable  for  its 
simplicity  and   i^athos,   must  be  passed   over; 

*  See  Saintsbury's  Matlhew  Arnold,  p.  il. 
\  227  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

but  let  me  emphasize  in  a  word  the  gem  of 

Arnold's  poems.    The  Scholar  Gypsy,   with  its 

Oxonian  setting  and  its  stately  swing  and  sway 

of  stanza,  mounting  to  the  culminating  lines: 

"Still  nursing  the  unconquerable  hope. 
Still  clutching  the  inviolable  shade." 

On  May  5,  1857,  Arnold  was  elected  by  Con- 
vocation to  the  Chair  of  Poetry  at  Oxford. 
He  was  the  first  layman  who  had  occupied  it, 
and  the  election  showed  that  his  works  had 
at  last  secured  the  sympathy  and  support  of 
a  conservative  yet  enlightened  group  of  scholars 
and  literary  people.  The  professorship  meant 
much  for  him,  and  more  for  the  English  litera- 
ture of  his  time.  The  death  of  Wordsworth, 
Macaulay,  and  Leigh  Hunt  ended  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth.  True,  Walter  Savage 
Landor  was  still  living ;  but  he  had  always 
dwelt  alone.  The  later  men  —  Carlyle,  Thack- 
eray, Dickens,  FitzGerald,  Mill,  Tennyson, 
Browning  —  were  now  well  to  the  front,  and 
Arnold  was  among  these  contemporaries  as 
the  poet  of  the  mind.  His  work  is  clear-cut, 
finely  finished,  like  specimens  of  classical  sculp- 
ture, and  like  them  in  its  polish  and  marble 
coldness.  The  larger  and  more  fascinating 
themes  of  love  and  passion  seem  beyond  him, 
and  his  dramatic  poems  are  too  reflective,  too 
restrained;  they  lack  the  vividness  and  move- 
ment wliich  characterize  the  highest  work  of 
r  228  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

this  order.  Although  many  of  his  passages 
are  models  of  clearness  and  of  concentration, 
they  rarely  rise  to  the  highest  levels.  But 
with  the  minor  strain  of  the  elegy  he  is  more 
at  home,  and  ever  and  anon  a  throb  of  emo- 
tion, a  sense  of  tears,  is  perceptible.  His  gentle 
yet  firm  strategy  of  thought  and  speech  wages 
war  on  carelessness  and  frivolity.  The  courage 
which  always  distinguishes  him  is  eminent  in 
his  verse.  He  never  turns  aside  when  evil  is  to 
be  rebuked.  And  those  who  follow  him  will 
be  conscious  that  "he  is  disengaged  from  the 
weak  and  the  temporary,  a  source  of  strength, 
if  not  of  joy." 

m 

Arnold  loved  England,  and  earnestly  desired 
her  betterment.  His  tenure  of  the  Chair  of 
Poetry  at  Oxford  quickened  this  desire,  and 
he  knew  no  better  service  to  render  her  than  to 
repair  the  defects  in  her  intellectual  and  literary 
history,  which  were  due,  as  he  conceived  it,  to 
the  lack  of  a  regulative  and  well-ordered  critical 
function.  His  own  poetry  had  been  received, 
it  so  far  as  it  was  received  at  all,  in  such  a 
haphazard  manner,  and  with  such  an  absence 
of  true  and  balanced  judgment,  that  he  deter- 
mined to  differentiate  between  criticism  which 
was  personal  and  sentimental  and  that  which 
was  canonical  and  scientific.  This  determina- 
tion was  not  a  hasty  one;  it  had  been  hinted  as 
f  229  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

early  as  1853,  when  he  called  attention,  in  the 
preface  of  his  Poems,  to  the  superiority  of  Con- 
tinental criticism  as  compared  with  that  of 
England.  On  the  Continent,  and  especially  in 
France,  writers  were  guided  by  ascertained 
precedents  and  sustained  by  carefully  devised 
rules,  which  did  not  permit  individual  tastes 
to  run  riot  or  idiosyncrasies  to  unduly  prevail. 
Recognized  standards  of  excellence,  in  both 
poetry  and  prose,  were  established  and  con- 
served by  such  organizations  as  the  French 
Academy;  and  Arnold  coveted  a  similar  lit- 
erary Senatus  which  should  govern  and  direct 
the  higher  forms  of  English  literature.  The 
scheme  was  an  exalted  one:  but  he  seems  to 
have  forgotten  that  each  nation  produces  after 
its  kind;  or  if  he  remembered  it,  he  was  so 
much  of  a  pedagogue,  that,  to  quote  his  own 
remark  about  the  Americans,  "Few  stocks  could 
be  trusted  to  grow  up  properly  without  having 
a  priesthood  and  an  aristocracy  to  act  as  their 
schoolmasters  at  some  time  or  other  of  their 
natural  existence."  That  he  exaggerated  the 
value  of  German  and  French  letters  at  the  ex- 
pense of  those  of  England  is  beyond  doubt. 
He  regrets  that  "not  very  much  of  current 
English  literature  comes  into  the  'best  that  is 
known  and  thought  in  the  world '  —  certainly 
less  than  that  of  France  or  Germany."  ^  When 
it  is  recalled  that  the  Germans  have  possessed 

^  See  Essays  in  Criticism,  Second  Series,  p.  38. 
[  230  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

only  two  major  poets  in  five  hundred  years,  and 
that  when  Arnold  made  his  observation  in  1865 
the  great  French  writers  were  rapidly  disappear- 
ing, while  for  one  hundred  years  around  this 
date  England  and  America  could  rejoice  in  at 
least  a  score  of  poets  and  prose  writers  of  the 
first  order,  the  reader  can  make  such  modifi- 
cations of  this  verdict  as  he  thinks  proper. 
Arnold  accompanied  it  with  the  strange  state- 
ment that  in  the  England  of  the  first  quarter  of 
the  nineteenth  century  there  was  "no  natural 
glow  of  life."  During  this  very  period  the 
Waverley  Novels  were  written,  the  battles  of 
Trafalgar  and  Waterloo  were  fought,  the  Napo- 
leonic Empire  was  destroyed,  and  Britain's 
hold  on  India  firmly  established.  These  are 
somewhat  lively  escapades  for  a  sluggish  and 
decadent  people. 

The  susceptibilities  of  Arnold  need  not  engage 
us  too  long,  since  one  is  never  able  to  satisfy 
himself  whether  they  are  deliberate  inventions 
or  sincere  and  pathetically  wrong  judgments. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  the  main  issue 
of  his  manifesto,  as  indeed  of  all  his  writings, 
he  was  correct  concerning  England's  deficiencies 
in  criticism.  Ben  Jonson,  Dryden,  Addison, 
Pope,  Dr.  Johnson,  and  the  Edinburgh  Re- 
viewers were  examples  of  great  critical  talent, 
which  was  isolated,  and  without  any  succes- 
sion, too  frequently  swayed  by  passion  and 
partisanship  rather  than  by  reason  and  the 
[2311 


Matthew  Arnold 

knowledge  of  the  best.  Coleridge  in  philo- 
sophical, Hazlitt  in  literary,  and  Lamb  in 
sympathetic  criticism  were  accomplished  and 
interesting  authorities;  but  in  the  chaotic  state 
then  existing,  they  could  do  little  more  than 
follow  their  own  judgment.  Deprived  of  any 
consensus  of  the  best  opinion,  they  were 
unable  to  correct  the  melancholy  narrowness 
and  frequent  delinquencies  of  the  art.  They 
left  no  heirs,  and  their  results  were  not  inves- 
tigated, supplemented,  or  coordinated  until 
Arnold  instituted  the  science  of  English  literary 
criticism.  This  was  one  of  the  most  important 
achievements  of  his  life,  and  upon  it  rests  his 
serious  claim  to  be  among  those  who  have 
advanced  learning.  He  defined  criticism  as 
the  endeavor,  in  all  branches  of  knowledge, 
theology,  philosophy,  history,  art,  science,  to 
see  the  object  as  it  really  is.^  This  obviously 
means  much  more  than  literary  criticism;  but 
literary  criticism  was  the  indispensable  part 
of  the  whole  movement.  He  set  down  the 
definition  with  the  conviction  already  named 
here,  that  Romanticism  had  been  allowed  too 
wide  a  margin,  and  that  "a  new  classicism  of 
lucidity,  proportion,  and  restraint"  was  needed 
to  complement  and  correct  the  authors  and 
critics  of  the  Revolutionary  period.  These 
had  received  an  undue  stimulation  from  the 
exciting  events  of  those  stirring  days,  and  as 

^  Esuays  in  Criticism,  First  Series,  p.  1. 
f  232  1 


Matthew   Arnold 

a  result  imagination  usurped  the  place  of  reason. 
Its  discolorations  stained  the  purity  of  true 
literature.  Arnold  scorned  a  return  to  the 
impeccable  style  of  the  school  of  Pope,  "whose 
poetry,"  he  remarked,  "was  conceived  and 
composed  in  the  wits,  whereas  genuine  poetry 
is  conceived  and  composed  in  the  soul."  He 
proposed  to  direct  attention  to  the  example  of 
those  immortals  who  are  enshrined  in  classic 
lore.  His  aim  was  similar  to  that  of  Ruskin 
in  the  realm  of  art:  an  aim  fearlessly  planned 
and  well  wrought,  though  not  without  short- 
comings. 

Nothing  was  more  deeply  rooted  in  Arnold 
than  the  intense  practicality  of  his  literary 
genius.  In  this  he  was  more  American  than 
English,  and  more  French  than  either.  For 
if,  as  Voltaire  said,  the  moral  vigor  of  its  ideas 
has  been  the  strength  and  glory  of  English 
poetry,  it  is  also  the  distinction  of  French 
poetry  that  It  not  only  richly  conceived  but 
radically  applied  its  conceptions.  It  was  this 
formal  and  immediate  application  that  swayed 
Arnold's  mind  in  the  constructive  part  of  his 
critical  work.  He  held  that  extraneous  interests 
and  views  must  be  completely  eliminated. 
Waywardness,  provinciality,  and  caprice  are 
the  pitfalls  the  true  guide  will  carefully  avoid ; 
they  are  the  besetting  faults  which  have  so 
often  hindered  correct  judgments.  The  govern- 
ing word  which  expresses  the  lawful  disposition 
1233  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

of  a  true  critic  is  disinterestedness.  By  means 
of  this  the  mind  can  approach  any  question 
with  one  side  or  the  other,  and  with  more 
sides,  if  more  there  be.  It  will  not  cry,  nor 
strive,  nor  persist  in  pressing  forward  with 
partisan  violence  and  self-will  to  exalt  any 
single  aspect  at  the  expense  of  others.  This 
important  requisite  must  be  secured;  "for  by  its 
aid  alone  can  mortals  hope  to  gain  any  vision  of 
the  mysterious  goddess  whom  we  shall  never  see 
except  in  outline."  Even  the  outline  will  not 
be  seen  unless  this  condition  of  mind  is  ours. 
Goethe  was  the  great  liberator  of  German 
thought,  because  he  had  disinterestedness,  and 
his  profound,  imperturbable  naturalism  was 
diametrically  opposed  to  routine  thinking.  Cer- 
tainly we  cannot  obtain  it  from  the  Mystics 
any  more  than  from  the  Romanticists;  for  they 
are  too  near  akin,  too  clouded  over  with  the 
mists  of  fancifulness,  too  much  swayed  by  gusts 
of  ill-regulated  sentiment,  to  be  of  any  real  ser- 
vice. According  to  Arnold,  neither  can  make 
any  practical  use  of  ideas  for  the  modern 
world. 

He  gives  three  rules  for  the  attainment  of 
disinterestedness.  The  first  is  hy  keeping  aloof 
from  practice,  such  a  detachment  being  neces- 
sary, since  the  natural  leaning  of  an  author 
to  his  own  style  injures  the  acuteness  and 
comprehensiveness  of  his  critical  faculty.  The 
second  is  like  the  first  in  that  it  is  negative 
[234  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

and  somewhat  vague:  by  the  relinquishing  of 
predilection  of  whatever  kind  or  description. 
The  main  function  of  criticism  is  to  understand 
and  indicate  the  best  that  is  known  and  thought 
in  the  world,  without  regard  to  party  affiliation, 
religious  belief,  adherence  to  creed,  promptings 
of  patriotism,  or  bias  of  temperament.  The 
one  positive  rule  follows :  by  a  free  play  of  the 
mind,  which,  delivered  from  distractions,  can 
act  upon  the  matters  before  it  with  accuracy 
and  justice.  We  are  to  avoid  bewildering 
those  who  come  after  us,  to  transmit  to  them 
the  practice  of  poetry  and  of  prose  with  its 
boundaries  and  wholesome  regulative  laws, 
under  which  excellent  work  may  again  at 
some  future  time  be  produced. 

Here  Arnold  shows  his  distinguishing  merit 
as  a  critic.  He  had  a  theory,  and  by  means 
of  it  he  regarded  his  subject  as  a  whole.  His 
opinions  were  more  than  opinions;  they  were 
the  studied  judgments  of  a  trained  intelligence 
working  upon  a  systematic  order  of  ideas;  and 
his  purpose  was  to  perpetuate  the  classic  style, 
to  find  which  a  man  need  not  forsake  the 
English  tongue.  Those  who  would  gain  any 
sense  of  its  power  and  charm  are  urged  to  read 
the  poetry  of  the  matchless  singer  of  Puritan- 
ism. Milton  is  the  great  magistrate  of  letters 
whose  work  is  the  faithful  continuation  of  the 
ancients.  "All  the  Anglo-Saxon  contagion,  all 
the  flood  of  Anglo-Saxon  commonness,  beats 
f  ^235  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

vainly  against  this  great  style,  but  cannot 
shake  it,  and  has  to  accept  its  triumphs.  It 
triumphs  in  Milton,  in  one  of  our  own  race, 
tongue,  faith,  morals.  It  is  no  longer  an  exotic 
here;  it  is  an  inmate  among  us,  a  leaven,  a 
power.  In  our  race  are  thousands  of  readers, 
presently  there  will  be  millions,  who  know  not 
a  word  of  Greek  or  Latin,  and  will  never  learn 
those  languages."  ^  They  need  not  trouble 
about  translations  so  long  as  they  read  the 
poetry  of  Milton.  The  world  will  eventually 
be  conquered  by  the  ideals  of  excellence  which 
he  has  forever  placed  within  the  compass  of 
our  speech. 

Such  teaching  reveals  Arnold  at  his  best,  as 
one  of  the  few  men  who  are  equally  important 
in  prose,  poetry,  and  criticism.  His  desire  for 
the  perfection  of  culture,  and  the  rules  that 
govern  its  acquirement,  found  their  completest 
utterance  in  his  volume  Essays  in  Criticism. 
It  is  also  his  most  important  prose  work,  an 
epoch-making  book,  "the  first  full,  varied,  and 
best  expression  of  the  author's  critical  attitude, 
and  the  detailed  exemplar  of  the  critical  method 
he  inaugurated  and  applied."  It  is  a  necessity, 
not  only  for  those  of  congenial  temperament, 
but  for  all  lovers  of  literature,  and  its  reading 
is  an  event  in  any  intelligent  person's  intel- 
lectual life.    Notwithstanding  this,  its  reception 

^  See  Address  on  John  Milton,  St.  Margaret's  Church,  West- 
minster, February  13th,  1888. 

[2361 


Matthew   Arnold 

corroborated  Arnold's  belief  concerning  the  im- 
pregnable indifference  of  the  English  people. 
It  appeared  in  1865,  and  a  second  edition  was 
not  required  until  18G9,  when  the  famous  preface 
was  shorn  of  some  ephemeral  allusions.  Nearly 
twenty  years  elapsed  before  the  sale  of  the 
fourth  edition  was  completed.  Yet  this  is  the 
book  which  contains  the  exquisite  address  to 
Oxford,  already  given,  the  essays  on  Heine,  on 
the  two  De  Guerins,  and  on  themes  as  widely 
different  as  Pagan  and  Mediaeval  Religious  Senti- 
ment and  The  Function  of  Criticism  at  the  Pres- 
ent Time.  In  the  contrast  of  paganism  with 
medisevalism  Arnold  places  side  by  side  with 
the  Hymn  to  Adonis  by  Theocritus  the  Canticle 
of  St.  Francis,  and  makes  the  following  com- 
ments upon  them:  "The  poetry  of  Theocritus's 
hymn  is  poetry  treating  the  world  according 
to  the  demand  of  the  senses;  the  poetry  of  St. 
Francis's  hymn  is  poetry  treating  the  world 
according  to  the  demand  of  the  heart  and 
imagination.  The  first  takes  the  world  by  its 
outward,  sensible  side;  the  second,  by  its  in- 
ward, symbolical  side.  The  first  admits  as  much 
of  the  world  as  is  pleasure-giving ;  the  second 
admits  the  whole  world,  rough  and  smooth, 
painful  and  pleasure-giving,  all  alike,  but  all 
transfigured  by  the  power  of  a  spiritual  emotion, 
all  brought  under  a  law  of  supersensual  love, 
having  its  seat  in  the  soul."  ^     Such  exposition 

'  Essays  in  Criticism,  First  Series  (London  1902),  p.  203. 
[237  1 


Matthew   Arnold 

as  this,  while  it  did  not  impress  the  public, 
dehghted  competent  judges,  who,  though  aware 
that  Arnold  was  sometimes  away  from  the 
center,  were  equally  aware  that  there  had  been 
nothing  like  it  since  Hazlitt.  In  Arnold's 
apparently  languid  and  reiterative  rhetoric 
there  is  a  sinuous  strength  and  attractiveness 
which  will  outlast  the  vigorous  style  of  more 
popular  authors.  It  is  a  protest  against  char- 
latanism and  vulgarity,  and  a  plea  for  purity 
and  naturalism  in  our  literary  standards.  With- 
out any  appetite  for  moralizing,  one  might 
suggest  that  many  a  young  clergyman  and 
public  speaker  will  save  his  soul  alive,  so  far  as 
effective  utterance  is  concerned,  by  making 
himself  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  better  side 
of  Arnold.  The  tendencies  to  tautology,  ver- 
bosity, unrestrained  allusion,  artificiality,  trite 
quotation,  and  excessive  symbolism  are  the 
bane  for  which  Arnold's  thoroughly  informed 
and  penetrating  criticism  is  the  antidote. 


238 


SEVENTH  LECTURE 
IVIATTHEW  ARNOLD 


Plainness  and  clearness  icithout  shadow  of  stain  I 

Clearness  divine! 

Ye  heavens,  whose  pure  dark  regions  have  no  sign 

Of  languor,  though  so  calm  and  though  so  great. 

Are  yet  untroubled  and  unpassionate ! 

Who,  though  so  noble,  share  in  the  world's  toil. 

And,  though  so  tasked,  keep  free  from  dust  and  soil! 

I  will  not  say  that  your  mild  deeps  retain 

A  tinge,  it  may  be,  of  their  silent  pain 

Who  have  longed  deeply  once,  and  long'd  in  vain; 

But  I  will  rather  say  that  you  remain 

A  world  above  man's  head,  to  let  him  see 

Hoiv  boundless  might  his  soid's  horizons  be, 

How  vast,  yet  of  what  clear  transparency ! 

How  it  were  good  to  live  there,  and  breathe  free! 

Hoiv  fair  a  lot  to  fill 

Is  left  to  each  man  still! 

Arnold.  —  A  Summer  Night. 


MATTHEW  ARNOLD 
PART  n 


Arnold  had  a  wide  and  congenial  acquaint- 
ance which  enriched  his  private  hfe ;  but  his 
mannerisms  were  unfortunate,  and  frequently 
hid  the  fact  that  he  was  human  on  every  side 
of  his  nature.  They  hardened  as  he  grew 
older,  and  "a  slightly  exotic  vocabulary"  made 
its  appearance  in  his  later  work.  So  it  came 
to  pass  that  this  man  —  who  was  the  idol  of 
his  intimates,  who  ardently  loved  life,  and 
who  believed  he  had  a  mission  to  preach  his 
gospel  to  his  countrymen  —  was  misunderstood, 
neglected,  and  condemned  so  far  as  the  general 
public  was  concerned.  He  had  virtually  laid 
aside  poetry  when  he  wrote  A  French  Eton, 
which  was  published  a  year  before  the  Essays. 
In  this  volume  certain  assumptions,  which  after- 
ward became  familiar,  made  their  first  appear- 
ance, and  they  grew  bolder  the  more  he  aired 
them  in  successive  books.  Not  content  with 
being  a  literary  critic,  he  was  disposed  to 
extend  his  function  to  political,  sociological, 
and  ecclesiastical  affairs.  He  displayed  a 
marked  animus  toward  theology  and  cler- 
[2411 


Matthew  Arnold 

icalism.  The  aristocracy  was  charged  with 
being  insensible  to  ideas ;  the  Anghcan  Church 
had  made  a  miserable  failure ;  the  middle 
class  had  no  taste,  no  real  knowledge  of  ethics, 
philosophy,  or  politics ;  and  England's  only 
hope  lay  in  imitating  France,  whose  enthu- 
siastic and  practical  application  of  ideas  to 
every  phase  of  human  life  kindled  his  admira- 
tion. Professor  Saintsbury  characterizes  his 
attitude  as  "a  combination  of  Socrates  and 
Lord  Chesterfield,"  highly  diverting  to  some, 
corrective  of  others,  and  not  without  disaster 
for  himself.  Arnold  had  a  slight  knowledge 
of  his  countrymen,  and  for  this  reason  he  was 
never  tired  of  reproaching  them.  Although 
he  does  not  openly  express  the  class  distinc- 
tion he  afterward  made,  the  English  people 
are  already  sharply  separated  in  his  mind  as 
Barbarians,  Philistines,  and  Populace. 

Except  perhaps  in  the  case  of  Browning,  his 
references  to  his  contemporaries  lacked  appre- 
ciation, to  say  nothing  of  cordiality.  Lord 
Coleridge  said  that  they  shriveled  in  his 
presence.  Charlotte  Bronte's  Villette  is  dis- 
agreeable because  the  writer's  mind  contains 
nothing  but  hunger,  rebellion,  and  rage.  No 
fine  writing  can  hide  this  thoroughly,  and  it 
will  be  fatal  to  her  in  the  long  run.  Bulwer 
Lytton's  nature  likewise  is  by  no  means  a  per- 
fect one,  and  this  makes  itself  felt  in  his  book. 
Ruskin  is  more  fortunate,  inasmuch  as  he 
[  2-12  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

meets  with  a  scanty  approval.  Bishop  Wilber- 
force  is  portrayed  as  of  no  real  power  of 
mind,  a  society-hunting  and  man-pleasing 
ecclesiastic.  Of  Tennyson  he  remarks,  "My 
interest  in  him  is  slight,  and  my  conviction  that 
he  will  not  finally  stand  high  is  firm."  After 
Thackeray's  death  he  wrote,  "I  cannot  say 
that  I  like  him  thoroughly,  though  we  were  on 
friendly  terms,  and  he  was  not  to  my  mind  a 
great  writer."  To  Keats  he  gave  a  belated 
recognition,  and  he  saw  the  defects  of  Cole- 
ridge more  conspicuously  than  his  excellences. 
Elizabethan  literature  was  full  of  spirit  and 
power,  but  "steeped  in  humors  and  whimsi- 
calities to  its  very  lips."  Even  Shakespeare 
did  not  escape.  Arnold  censured  him  for  a 
tortuous  ahd  faulty  style  in  many  passages, 
and  termed  his  diction  fantastic  and  false. 
Lincoln's  utterances  lacked  distinction.  And 
the  whole  outlook  and  manner  of  Macaulay 
was  derided.  This  is  not  sweet  reasonable- 
ness; nor  is  it  envy  or  jealousy.  Arnold  was 
not  always  given  to  the  former,  but  he  was 
absolutely  above  the  latter.  He  kept  his 
unqualified  sympathy  and  approval  for  a  se- 
lected few,  chiefly  Wordsworth  and  some  Con- 
tinentals, of  whom  Sainte-Beuve  was  the 
most  prominent.  His  excessive  devotion  to 
this  remnant  introduced  into  his  criticism  of 
others  the  personal  equation  he  was  always 
deploring ;  and  while  he  was  conscientious, 
[243  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

and  desired  to  be  just,  he  was  often  muddled 
in  his  estimates. 

This  is  seen  in  the  controversial  manner  he 
adopted  toward  the  Puritan  element  of  EngHsh- 
speaking  society.  He  wrote  from  the  stand- 
point of  an  Erastian,  who  frankly  believed  in 
a  State  Church  if  it  could  be  modeled  on  his 
own  lines  of  comprehensiveness.  He  had  no 
love  for  that  type  of  church  life  which,  until 
the  last  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
remained  almost  untouched  by  the  progress  of 
thought.  And  at  bottom  he  did  have  a  gen- 
uine estimate  for  Puritanism,  albeit  accom- 
panied by  a  knowledge  of  its  shortcomings, 
and  an  earnest  hope  that  he  might  be  able  to 
remedy  them.  In  one  of  his  American  ad- 
dresses he  spoke  of  the  Puritan  training  which 
we  have  undergone  here,  and  remarked  that, 
as  "a  means  for  enabling  that  poor,  inattentive, 
and  immoral  creature,  man,  to  love  and  appro- 
priate and  make  part  of  his  being,  divine  ideas, 
on  which  he  could  not  otherwise  have  laid  or 
kept  hold,  the  discipline  of  Puritanism  has  been 
invaluable;  and,"  he  continues,  "the  more  I 
read  history,  the  more  I  see  of  mankind,  the 
more  I  recognize  its  value." 

True,  it  was  given  to  Puritanism  to  fix  and 
intensify  in  England  and  America  a  standard  of 
conduct ;  and  even  its  narrowness  was  the 
result  of  moral  concentration  attended  by  high 
seriousness  and  the  governing  sense  of  the 
[2-44] 


Matthew  Arnold 

presence  of  God.  The  objection  Arnold  made 
was  that,  in  spite  of  its  undeniable  excel- 
lences, it  afforded  no  place  for  the  demands 
of  intellect,  knowledge,  beauty,  and  manners ; 
and  that,  after  it  had  enjoyed  a  season  of 
prosperity,  it  retired  within  itself,  where  its 
imperfections  solidified  and  became  less  capable 
of  correction.  The  Puritan  had  overvalued  the 
doctrine  of  self-restraint  and  dwelt  too  exclu- 
sively on  strictness  of  conscience.  Arnold  saw 
that  a  reaction  was  inevitable,  and  he  feared  it 
might  eventually  bring  a  resuscitation  of  the 
pagan  spirit,  and  end  in  the  sordidness  of  mere 
pleasure-seeking,  or  even  absolute  degradation. 
He  aimed  to  effect  a  reconciliation  by  the 
union  of  those  two  tendencies,  the  names  of 
which  are  well  kno\\Ti  to  his  readers  —  Hel- 
lenism and  Hebraism.  These  are  not  antin- 
omies, mutually  exclusive  of  each  other,  but 
component  parts  of  the  scheme  for  human 
development.  In  that  development  Hellenism 
and  Hebraism  are  indispensable  contributions. 
But  the  end  is  not  in  them ;  it  is  in  the  growth 
of  the  man  himself,  and  to  this  end  Arnold 
would  have  them  reign  side  by  side  in  friendly 
empire  over  the  human  mind.  He  is  willing  to 
admit  that  Puritanism  was  perhaps  necessary 
to  strengthen  the  moral  fiber  of  the  English 
race,  to  break  the  yoke  of  ecclesiastical  domina- 
tion over  men's  minds  and  thus  prepare  the 
way  for  freedom.  Still,  culture  points  out  that 
f  245  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

the  harmonized  perfection  of  generations  of 
Puritans  has  been  in  consequence  sacrificed. 
It  is  now  time  for  us  to  Hellenize  and  to  praise 
knowing,  for  we  have  Hebraized  too  much  and 
have  overvalued  doing.  Culture  for  him  was  a 
harmonious  expansion  of  all  the  powers  which 
make  the  beauty  and  the  worth  of  human 
nature,  and  it  was  not  consistent  with  the 
overdevelopment  of  any  one  power  at  the 
expense  of  the  rest.  Here,  he  adds,  culture 
goes  beyond  religion  as  generally  conceived 
by  us.  Literature  must  be  at  the  top,  the 
knowledge  of  the  best  that  has  been  spoken 
in  history,  philosophy,  and  poetry.  "While 
Hebraism  seizes  upon  certain  plain,  capital 
intimations  of  the  universal  order,  and  rivets 
itself  upon  them  with  unequalled  grandeur  and 
intensity,  the  bent  of  Hellenism  is  to  follow 
with  flexible  activity  the  whole  play  of  the 
universal  order,  to  be  apprehensive  of  missing 
any  part  of  it,  of  sacrificing  one  part  to  another." 
The  Greeks  may  have  failed  to  give  adequate 
attention  to  the  claims  of  man's  moral  side, 
but  they  arrived  at  a  more  comprehensive 
adjustment  of  the  claims  of  both  sides  in  men, 
the  intellectual  as  well  as  the  moral,  and  they 
made  a  reconciliation  of  both  which  is  of  the 
utmost  service  to  the  modern  world.  Dr.  W.  L. 
Watkinson  comments  with  pungency  on  this 
arraignment  of  the  moral  order.  In  his  lecture 
on  The  Influence  of  Skepticism  on  Character  the 
[246  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

distinguished  preacher  impeaches  Arnold  for 
his  flouting  of  the  Puritan  sympathy  with  the 
righteousness  of  the  Bible  and  the  Puritan 
preference  for  goodness  rather  than  beauty  and 
taste.  According  to  the  ethics  of  the  Scriptures, 
"Righteousness  is  the  essential,  supreme,  final 
law  of  development  for  the  individual,  the 
nation,  the  race ;  wealth,  arms,  art,  literature, 
trade,  government,  and  what  else,  being  left 
to  take  their  chance,  which  they  are  then  best 
able  to  do,  under  the  ordering  of  the  natural 
action  of  the  sovereign  law  of  righteousness."  ^ 
The  placing  of  anything  on  an  equality  with 
character,  the  exaltation  of  any  form  of  intel- 
lectual pursuit  above  moral  principle  and 
obligation,  is  obnoxious  to  the  conscience  of 
a  people  trained  in  the  precepts  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  Such  is  Dr.  Watkinson's  rebuff  to 
the  propagandism  against  that  section  of  English 
life  of  which  Arnold  himself  said  that  with  all 
its  faults  it  was  still  the  best  stuff  in  the 
nation.  The  reviving  taste  for  the  drama,  and 
the  increasing  appreciation  for  letters  and  the 
arts,  were  indications  to  Arnold  of  England's 
ultimate  salvation.  He,  however,  seriously  in- 
jured his  influence  because  he  would  indulge 
too  freely  his  dangerous  gift  for  gibes  and 
sneers.  The  leaders  of  contemporary  Puritan- 
ism were  incensed  by  his  polite  and  studied 
abuse.     He  met  their  fulminations  with  a  pas- 

^  Watkinson's  Influence  of  Skepticism  on  Character,  pp.  3-1-37. 
[  247  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

sive  resistance  which  was  more  effective  than  a 
vigorous  onslaught.  But  his  vision  of  a  recon- 
structed England  and  America,  in  which  the 
graces  of  Hellenism  would  give  equipoise  and 
completeness  to  the  Puritan  character,  was  un- 
realized by  him,  and  his  first  approaches  ended 
in  failure. 

As  distinguished  from  the  Puritanism  of 
America,  that  of  England  ofiFered  a  promising 
field  for  his  evangel  of  culture.  For  there 
Free  Churchmen  had  been  practically  excluded 
from  the  Universities,  and  yet  they  had  been 
compelled  to  bear  their  full  share  of  the 
burden  of  making,  moralizing,  and  liberalizing 
the  empire.  Like  their  American  brethren, 
they  had  shared  with  the  Hebrew  in  the  sense 
of  holiness  and  with  the  Roman  in  the  sense 
of  law  and  politics.  There  is  no  reason  to 
doubt  that,  with  an  equal  opportunity,  they 
could  also  have  shared,  long  before  they  did, 
in  those  graces  which  are  the  finished  pro- 
duct of  the  natural  faculties.  Where  Arnold 
did  not  succeed,  others  have  done  so,  and 
the  precisian  conscience  of  sectarianism,  with 
its  "unlovely  leanness  of  moral  judgment," 
has  now  been  ameliorated  from  more  humane 
sources.  The  gloomy  and  perverse  asceticism 
of  which  he  justly  complained  is  passing  away, 
while  the  beauty  and  harmony  which  are  every- 
where the  reflection  of  God  have  come  to  their 
own  among  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
[248  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

Cromwellians  and  the  Pilgrims.  What  course 
Puritanism  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  would 
have  followed,  had  it  not  been  interrupted 
and  occupied  by  its  stern  defense  of  liberty, 
it  is  perhaps  idle  to  speculate.  Milton  —  a 
far  more  complete  soul  than  Arnold,  one  in- 
deed to  whom  he  himself  pointed  as  the  soli- 
tary representative  in  the  modern  period  of  the 
authoritative  traditions  of  the  past  —  has  ex- 
pressed the  earlier  ideals  of  Puritanism  when 
undisturbed  by  war  and  persecution.  In  the 
sad,  sweet  strains  of  //  Penseroso  and  the 
joyous  music  of  V Allegro  there  is  a  stateli- 
ness  and  a  delight  which  were  lost  when  the 
poet  doffed  his  singing  robes  that  he  might 
impeach  the  tyrants  of  the  State.  We  have 
gloried  so  much  in  our  fathers'  victories  and  in 
the  results  which  followed  them  that  perhaps 
we  have  forgotten  what  losses  were  incurred 
by  the  thwarting  of  these  earlier  ideals.  At 
any  rate,  we  can  console  ourselves  with  the 
suggestion  that,  had  not  our  ancestors  thus 
contended  and  won,  Arnold  would  hardly  have 
been  permitted  to  print  what  he  did.  They 
nursed  the  pinion  which  impelled  his  steel; 
for  if  Archbishop  Laud  could  have  laid  hands 
on  the  outspoken  critic  of  creeds  and  of  the 
Episcopacy,  a  charming  literary  career  might 
have  come  to  grief. 

The  term  "Philistine,"  of  which  Arnold  makes 
such  a  liberal  use,  is  first  found  in  his  essays 
[249  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

on  Heine.  He  borrowed  it  from  the  German, 
and  he  apphed  it  to  the  self-complacent  and 
conventional  respectability  of  the  English 
nation.  There  Goliath  of  Gath  pitched  his 
tent,  there  was  the  god  Dagon,  and  there  were 
the  hosts  of  the  uncircumcised.  These  ani- 
madversions were  prompted  by  the  prevalent 
disinclination  to  culture  which  existed  in  the 
chosen  island.  He  sat  closer  to  the  conscience 
of  intellectual  reform  than  his  fellow-citizens, 
and  he  incessantly  attacked  them  for  their 
conceit,  fatuousness,  and  stupidity.  He  op- 
posed their  ignorant  assumptions,  their  false 
standards,  and  their  vitiated  tastes.  As  a 
child  of  the  ideal  he  had  no  possible  relation 
with  those  self-appointed  guardians  of  the 
truth  who  had  ceased  to  be  able  to  recognize 
truth  when  they  saw  it.  Carlyle  anticipated 
Arnold  in  his  detestation  of  Philistinism,  to 
which  he  referred  as  "respectability  in  a  thou- 
sand gigs."  The  term  respectable  was  too 
polite  and  sedate  for  Arnold's  use  in  this  con- 
nection. His  analysis  was  more  thorough  and 
more  caustic;  he  confuted  the  accepted  guides 
of  public  opinion  with  rough  and  unsparing 
words  interspersed  with  soft,  silky,  insinuating 
refinements  and  quips  more  irritating  than 
merely  irascible  comments.  These  corrupted 
powers  ruled  every  sphere;  the  worlds  of  art, 
literature,  and  politics  were  their  property. 
The}'  exercised  dictatorship  over  morals  and 
[250  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

theology;  their  verdicts,  though  based  on  no 
well-founded  tenets,  were  beyond  appeal. 
For  him  they  were  blind  leaders  of  the  blind, 
provincials  encased  in  obsolete  dogmas;  and  he 
treated  them  with  supercilious  blandness  and 
ironical  scorn.  He  tells  the  Guardian  that  it  is 
dull,  Presbyter  Anglicanus  that  he  is  born  of 
Hyrcanian  tigers,  and  the  editor  of  the  Satur- 
day Review  that  he  is  a  late  and  embarrassed 
convert  to  the  Philistines,  When  Mr.  Wright 
complained  of  Arnold's  strictures  upon  his 
translation  of  the  Iliad,  he  replied  that  the 
matter  had  left  his  memory.  But  he  was 
willing  to  withdraw  the  offending  phrase,  and 
expressed  his  sorrow  for  having  used  it.  He 
says:  "Mr.  Wright,  however,  would  perhaps  be 
more  indulgent  to  my  vivacity,  if  he  considered 
that  we  are  none  of  us  likely  to  be  lively  much 
longer.  My  vivacity  is  but  the  last  sparkle  of 
flame  before  we  are  all  in  the  dark,  the  last 
glimpse  of  color  before  we  all  go  into  drab,  — 
the  drab  of  the  earnest,  prosaic,  practical,  aus- 
terely literal  future.  Yes,  the  world  will  soon 
be  the  Philistines'!  and  then,  with  every  voice, 
not  of  thunder,  silenced,  and  the  whole  earth 
filled  and  ennobled  every  morning  by  the  mag- 
nificent roaring  of  the  young  lions  of  the  Daily 
Telegraph,  we  shall  all  yawn  in  one  another's 
faces  with  the  dismallest,  the  most  unimpeach- 
able gravity."  ^     The  modesty  of  Arnold's  reck- 

^  Essays  in  Criticism,  First  Series,  p.  6. 
[2511 


Matthew  Arnold 

oning  on  the  illuminating  qualities  of  his  own 
vivacity  will  doubtless  appear  unto  many ; 
however  that  may  be,  he  would  persist  in 
prophesying,  the  most  gratuitous  of  all  forms 
of  error. 

Yet  much  can  be  forgiven  a  man  who  says 
concerning  culture,  "It  seeks  to  do  away  with 
classes  and  sects;  to  make  the  best  that  has 
been  thought  and  known  in  the  world  current 
everywhere;  to  make  all  men  live  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  sweetness  and  light,  where  they  may 
use  ideas,  as  it  uses  them  itself,  freely  nourished 
and  not  bound  by  them.  This  is  the  social 
idea ;  and  the  men  of  culture  are  the  true 
apostles  of  humanity."  Arnold  is  here  in  one 
of  his  happiest  humors,  and  the  more  credit  is 
due  to  him  when  we  remember  the  dull  routine 
he  was  called  upon  to  endure.  "Here,"  he  com- 
plains, "is  my  programme  for  this  afternoon: 
Avalanches — The  Steam-engine — The  Thames 

—  India-rubber  —  Bricks  —  The  Battle  of  Poi- 
tiers—  Subtraction — The  Reindeer — The  Gun- 
powder Plot  —  The  Jordan.  Alluring,  is  it 
not.'^  Twenty  minutes  each,  and  the  days  of 
one's  life  are  only  threescore  years  and  ten." 
This  kind  of  thing  lasted  for  thirty-five  years, 
during  which  he  displayed  the  virtue  already 
mentioned,  and  which  is  found  in  both  his 
poetry  and  his  criticism,  a  dauntless  courage 

—  courage  in  his  crusade  against  British  indiffer- 
rence  and  provincialism,   courage   in  his  bold 


Matthew  Arnold 

challenge  of  the  false  gods  of  democracy,  courage 
in  his  indictment  of  men  in  high  place  who 
sought  to  cover  their  intellectual  destitution 
with  sounding  and  superfluous  phrases.  Had 
Arnold's  wisdom  always  been  equal  to  his 
courage,  he  would  have  entered  more  abun- 
dantly than  he  did  into  the  results  of  his  labor. 
It  is  easy  enough  to  detect  him  in  the  breach 
of  his  own  rules,  and  to  chide  him  for  turning 
aside  to  indulge  in  disproportionate  praise  and 
blame.  Yet  we  are  not  to  forget  that  he 
created  a  new  era  in  criticism,  and  gave  a  new 
interest  to  aesthetic  forms  of  culture. 

II 

In  politics  Arnold  was  a  sort  of  hesitant 
Liberal,  without  the  habit  of  allegiance  to 
party  leaders,  and  with  some  marked  peculiari- 
ties of  his  own.^  He  was  hospitably  inclined 
toward  many  new  theories;  but  as  these  were 
more  often  wrong  than  right,  his  entertain- 
ment of  them  was  looked  upon  as  a  harmless 
diversion.  Besides,  a  man  who  persisted  in 
judging  for  himself,  who  took  nothing  at  sec- 
ond hand,  who  bowed  the  knee  to  no  reputa- 
tion, however  high  its  pedestal  in  the  temple 
of  fame,  was  not  likely  to  be  a  successful 
politician.  He  pitied  the  sorrows  of  the  people 
who  suffer,  the  dim  common  populations  "who 
faint  away";  but  he  pitied  them  from  above, 

^  Introduction  to  Culture  and  Anarchy. 
1253] 


Matthew  Arnold 

and  the  idea  that  the  fountains  of  authority 
were  in  these  masses  never  occurred  to  him.  He 
had  honorable  and  true  convictions  on  certain 
vexed  issues  of  the  day,  issues  which  are  still 
in  process  of  adjustment  and  have  no  imme- 
diate prospect  of  settlement.  He  held  that 
there  must  be  a  levelling  in  the  immense  in- 
equalities of  material  condition  and  property 
which  exist  in  England,  and  which  he  thought 
were  due  to  the  feudal  system  of  land  tenure. 
Municipal  life  should  also  be  cleansed,  and  its 
ignorance  and  pauperism,  crime  and  vice, 
exterminated.  Secondary  education  ought  to 
be  extended  on  a  scale  commensurate  with 
natural  necessities,  and  made  accessible  to  the 
democracy.  This  admirable  scheme  is  an  ex- 
tensive programme  for  the  poet  in  politics,  and 
seems  almost  more  like  Mill  than  Arnold. 
But  his  usual  perverse  fate  accompanied  it, 
and  probably  he  was  better  known  and  less 
loved  for  his  personal  dislike  of  Gladstone  or 
his  opposition  to  Home  Rule  than  for  his 
ardent  support  of  such  enlightened  and  neces- 
sary measures  as  land  reform  and  higher  edu- 
cation. He  astonished  his  friends  and  delighted 
his  foes  by  opposing  the  Burials  Bill,  which 
gave  Free  Churchmen  the  right  to  use  their 
own  ministry  and  forms  of  service.  He  gravely 
argued  that  this  would  substitute  less  suitable 
and  dignified  liturgies,  and  that  such  a  substi- 
tution would  be  equivalent  to  displacing  a  poem 
[254  1 


M  attheio  Arnold 

of  Milton  for  some  verses  by  Eliza  Cook.  Yet 
despite  these  unhappy  misdirections,  he  won- 
dered why  the  Free  Churchmen  did  not  hail 
him  as  their  deliverer.  To  the  last  he  vehe- 
mently denounced  the  disestablishment  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  Ireland,  and  he  would 
have  been  willing  to  see  the  Methodist,  Roman 
Catholic,  and  Presbyterian  Churches  made  par- 
takers in  State  pay  and  patronage  rather  than 
have  the  measure  enacted.  His  scheme  of 
ultimate  union  included  the  incorporation  of 
Roman  Catholicism,  Anglicanism,  and  Puri- 
tanism, although  he  realized  that  this  was  a 
far-off  event  to  be  preceded  by  the  amalgama- 
tion of  Protestants.  It  is  probable  that  Arnold 
sympathized  with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
rather  than  with  the  Church  of  his  birth  or 
with  Nonconformity.  The  efficient  organiza- 
tion of  the  older  communion  appealed  to  his 
high  views  on  the  question,  and  he  made  the 
prediction  that  Romanism  would  be  the  pre- 
vailing form  for  the  Christianity  of  the  future. 
He  was  alive  to  its  credulities,  intolerance,  and 
dislike  of  criticism;  but  these  w^ere  traits  which 
it  shared  with  human  nature  at  large,  and  the 
differences  between  it  and  Protestantism  were 
quantitive  rather  than  qualitative.  It  appeals 
to  the  imagination  in  a  way  that  Protestantism 
can  not  and  does  not.  It  has  the  commenda- 
tion of  antiquity,  and  accessories  which  give  it 
nobleness  and  amplitude.  Its  knowledge  of 
[  )loo  ] 


Matthew  Arnold 

human  nature  is  deep  and  subtle,  its  stores  of 
human  experience  abound  in  wisdom  and  state- 
craft. If  Romanism  were  only  awake  to  its 
perennial  power  of  attraction,  it  would  speed- 
ily increase  its  already  large  constituencies. 
But  it  must  be  "a  Romanism  purged,  opening 
itself  to  the  light  and  air,  having  the  conscious- 
ness of  its  own  poetry,  freed  from  its  sacerdotal 
despotism,  and  also  from  its  pseudo-scientific 
apparatus  of  superannuated  dogma."  Such  is 
the  type  of  Catholicism  to  which  Arnold  would 
commit  the  welfare  of  the  Church  at  large. 
And  he  regrets  that  the  advocates  of  the 
Catholic  creeds  and  of  the  ultramontane 
system  should  vainly  claim  for  them  that 
which  is  alone  true  of  Catholic  worship.  This 
is  a  purely  religious  function,  it  is  eternal 
and  universal,  and,  if  freed  from  the  theolo- 
gical and  political  elements  which  embarrass 
it,  would  reassert  itself  with  august  author- 
ity. But  he  concludes  that  "to  rule  over 
the  moment  and  the  credulous  has  more 
attraction  than  to  work  for  the  future  and 
the  sane."  ^ 

In  his  ofiBcial  intercourse  with  Noncon- 
formist school-managers,  Arnold  gained  that 
curiously  intimate  knowledge  of  the  various 
denominations  which  furnished  the  material 
for  his  discussion  of  their  history,  doctrines^ 
and  influence  upon  one  another  and  upon  the 

^  Essay  on  Eugenie  de  Guerin. 
[256] 


Matthew  Arnold 

nation.  Notwithstanding  his  apparently  un- 
avoidable sarcasm,  he  treated  many  of  their 
issues  in  a  broad  and  ihuminating  way;  and  it 
is  a  misfortune  that  it  is  not  Arnold's  views 
which  have  become  current  coin,  so  much  as 
certain  capricious  literary  phrases  and  twists  of 
speech.  Men  who  speak  of  his  contempt  for 
the  "dissidence  of  dissent"  and  the  "Protes- 
tantism of  the  Protestant  religion  "  have  yet  to 
learn  that  he  always  wrote  with  the  aim  of 
reconciliation,  and  with  the  firm  belief  that 
Nonconformity  was  doomed  unless  it  could 
save  itself  by  a  return  to  the  Establishment, 
which  must  be  purified  and  broadened  to 
receive  it. 

His  religious  views  reflect  the  turbulent 
period  of  transition  in  which  he  lived.  It  was 
no  longer  possible  for  him  to  take  refuge  in 
the  quietism  of  Wordsworth  or  in  the  German 
metaphysics  of  Coleridge.  Scientific  progress 
had  caused  the  disquisitions  of  these  men  to 
appear  as  far  removed  from  Arnold's  day 
as  were  the  speculations  of  the  Schoolmen. 
Further,  he  had  not  the  necessary  learning  to 
be  a  theological  leader,  and  it  was  his  lack  of 
this  which  led  him  to  some  fantastic  conclu- 
sions and  also  incurred  the  opposition  of  con- 
temporary orthodoxy.  Yet  his  spirituality  of 
outlook  and  ethical  purpose  were  unmistakable, 
and  he  knew  that,  remarkable  as  were  the  reve- 
lations of  organized  knowledge,  they  would 
[2571 


Matthew  Arnold 

eventually  fail  to  satisfy  the  yearnings  of  man's 
higher  nature.  His  essays  on  theological  and 
polemical  subjects  were  published  at  an  oppor- 
tune moment  when  the  matters  he  discussed 
were  well  to  the  front.  They  will  continue  to 
be  read  as  models  of  English  prose;  but  it  is 
more  than  doubtful  if  they  will  exercise  any 
formative  influence.  So  far  as  biblical  criti- 
cism and  the  philosophy  of  religion  were 
concerned,  he  initiated  nothing,  but  simply 
emphasized  and  gave  a  popular  setting  to 
certain  phases  of  German  scholarship.  He 
reveals  the  spirit  though  not  the  temper  of  the 
Tubingen  school.  His  treatment  of  these  and 
kindred  questions  is  found  chiefly  in  Culture 
and  Anarchy :  an  Essay  in  Political  and  Social 
Criticism  (1869);  St.  Paul  and  Protestantism: 
with  an  Introduction  on  Puritanism  and  the 
Church  of  England  (1870);  Literature  and 
Dogma:  an  Essay  toward  a  Better  Apprehension 
of  the  Bible  (1872);  Last  Essays  on  Church  and 
Religion  (1877);  and  Discourses  in  America 
(1885). 

It  should  be  added  that  Arnold  laid  no 
claim  to  theological  knowledge;  indeed,  so  far 
as  dogma  was  concerned,  he  was  proud  of  his 
detachment  from  it.  He  believed  that  the 
world  had  had  enough  of  it,  and  his  purpose 
was  to  examine  its  stock  notions  and  current 
phrases  and  pour  into  them  a  fresh  stream 
of  ideas.  Mr.  William  H.  Dawson  argues  that, 
[  258  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

as  a  layman,  Arnold  was  the  better  able  to 
do  this  with  an  open  mind;  for  he  had  no  thesis 
to  establish  and  no  preconceptions  to  confirm  — 
in  a  word,  nothing  to  prove.  It  was  there- 
fore easier  for  him  to  grasp  large  spiritual 
truths  and  interpret  them  in  a  generous 
temper.  He  was  freed  from  exclusiveness  and 
provinciality,  and  the  whole  range  of  human 
experience  in  religion  was  open  to  his  inquiry. 
In  brief,  disinterestedness,  Arnold's  first 
canon  of  criticism,  was  applied  to  the  study  of 
these  questions.  Its  presence  in  poets  and 
philosophers  has  made  them  rather  than 
theologians  the  prophets  of  God  to  the  modern 
generation.  And  the  milder  and  more  sym- 
pathetic attitude  of  Christians  toward  one 
another  and  toward  non-Christian  religions  is 
largely  owing  to  the  simple  candor  with  which 
claims  to  a  monopoly  of  revelation  and  grace 
have  been  brushed  aside  by  such  teachers  as 
Carlyle  and  Browning. 

Arnold  defines  God  in  various  ways.  He 
refers  to  the  Supreme  Being,  in  his  original 
preface  to  Literature  and  Dogma,  as  a  great 
personal  first  Cause,  the  moral  and  intelligent 
(Governor  of  the  universe;  he  would  have  us  re- 
member, however,  that  the  word  "God"  must 
not  be  regarded  as  a  term  of  exact  knowledge,  but 
as  one  of  poetry  and  eloquence.  It  cannot  con- 
vey the  fully  developed  object  of  the  speaker's 
consciousness;  and  further,  since  consciousness 
[259  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

differs  at  intervals  and  men  mean  different 
things  by  it,  it  is  rather  an  ehisive  process  to 
discover  Arnold's  foundation  for  the  Deity. 
He  speaks  of  Him  again,  in  his  favorite  and 
descriptive  definition,  as  "the  enduring  Power, 
not  ourselves,  which  makes  for  Righteousness." 
He  insists  that  the  idea  of  God  as  a  magnified 
and  unnatural  man  must  make  way  for  a 
Divine  Being  to  whom  he  appears  to  deny 
personality,  and  who  is  once  more  defined  as 
"the  stream  of  tendency  by  which  all  things 
fulfil  the  law  of  their  being."  It  is  unneces- 
sary to  follow  Arnold  in  all  his  deviations;  and 
although  he  was  perfectly  serious,  it  is  sometimes 
hard  to  believe  him  so.  His  strong  religious 
sense  was  affected  by  the  notion  that  religion 
can  be  selected  and  arranged  at  will,  or  to  suit 
one's  personal  tastes  and  preferences,  but  he 
never  seemed  to  understand  the  other  side  of 
the  question  —  that  religion  is  a  divine  authority 
and  a  divine  revelation;  a  superior  and  reveal- 
ing gift  bestowed  and  conditioned  by  a  higher 
Power.  Viewed  in  this  light,  it  must  be  taken 
as  offered,  in  strict  accordance  with  its  own 
demands.  Again,  Arnold  failed  to  distinguish 
between  the  intolerant  and  effete  phases  of  a 
passing  orthodoxy  and  those  more  enlightened 
and  influential  schools  of  theological  thought 
which  were  rapidly  gaining  ascendency  in  his 
day.  Lurking  under  all  his  terms  is  the  recur- 
rent error  of  arbitrary  and  superficial  classifica- 

iseoi 


Matthew  Arnold 

tion,  which  confused  men  and  measures,  and 
treated  as  one  those  who  were  in  many  respects 
sundered  as  the  poles.  Convenient  and  strik- 
ing phraseology  cannot  successfully  conceal 
these  confusions;  his  thoughtful  readers  will 
detect  them.  The  careless  generalities  which 
proclaim  as  a  unity  things  that  totally  differ 
may  be  the  delight  of  the  vulgar,  but  they  are 
distasteful  to  the  cultured  mind. 

In  speaking  of  the  New  Testament,  he  would 
take  no  part  in  Renan's  insinuations  against 
the  moral  integrity  of  the  disciples.  Their 
good  faith  was  above  question  and  testifies  for 
itself.  While  "miracles  do  not  happen,"  and 
are  an  unnecessary  support  to  religious  belief, 
he  admits  that  the  majority  of  people  have 
found  them  a  stimulus.  It  is  needless  to  argue 
against  them,  for  the  Zeitgeist  is  the  destroyer 
of  such  Aberglaube,  and  we  can  afford  to 
leave  them  to  the  drift  of  time  and  the  widen- 
ing experiences  of  the  race.  Whenever  Arnold 
wished  to  introduce  a  universal  corrective,  he 
turned  to  the  Zeitgeist.  His  veneration  for  it 
was  profound ;  for  him  it  had  an  authority 
that  nothing  could  withstand.  Its  masterful 
influences  went  beyond  those  of  any  miracle. 

The  aim  of  his  life  was  to  make  sweet  reason 
and  the  will  of  God  prevail  in  his  home.  He 
maintained  a  religious  discipline,  and  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  daily  prayer  and  spiritual 
meditation  were  his  private  habits.  He  had  a 
[2611 


Matthew  Arnold 

surpassing  reverence  and  love  for  Jesus  Christ, 
and  he  avers  that  "while  Christianity  makes 
for  men's  happiness,  it  does  not  rest  upon  that 
as  a  motive.  ...  It  finds  a  far  surer  ground  in 
believing  that  Christ  is  come  from  God  ;  in  fol- 
lowing Christ,  loving  Christ ;  and  in  the  happi- 
ness that  believing  in  Him  and  loving  Him  gives, 
it  finds  its  mightiest  sanction."  With  mellow- 
ing accent  he  declares  that  Christianity  must 
survive ;  and  those  who  fancied  they  had  done 
with  it,  those  who  had  turned  it  aside  because 
what  was  presented  in  its  name  was  so  unre- 
liable, would  have  to  return  to  it  again  and 
to  learn  it  better. 

Yet  the  works  of  Arnold  are  full  of  a  diluted 
positivism ;  and  whatever  may  have  been  the 
idea  of  God  which  satisfied  his  personal  expe- 
rience, the  Deity  who  emerges  from  his  philo- 
sophical speculations  is  too  shadowy  and  unreal 
for  strength  or  comfort.  In  fact,  he  was 
not  so  much  a  religious  teacher  as  an  ethi- 
cal idealist.  By  reducing  religion  to  conduct, 
and  by  expressly  denying  to  conduct  any  rela- 
tion to,  or  meaning  for,  an  after-Hfe,  he  makes 
religion  a  matter  of  policy.^  He  saw  with  ap- 
palling clearness  the  ignorance  and  grossness 
which  he  constantly  assailed,  and  he  also  real- 
ized the  false  position  in  which  faith  is  placed 
when  all  the  tendencies  of  knowledge  are 
opposed  to  it.     But  he  did  not  see  the  truth, 

^  W.  H.  Dawson's  Matthew  Arnold,  p.  257. 
[  262  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

or  if  he  did  he  disregarded  it,  that  a  man  who 
has  no  scientific  estimation  of  his  beliefs,  and 
yet  has  learned  the  secret  of  conduct,  has, 
according  to  Arnold's  own  reckoning,  become 
the  master  of  four-fifths  of  his  life. 

One  wishes  that  he  could  have  trusted  the 
plain  people,  and  thus  have  laid  the  ghost  of 
popular  credulousness  which  always  haunted 
him.  He  could  not  easily  believe  that  not 
many  learned  and  not  many  noble  are  chosen ; 
that  the  mystery  and  grandeur  of  religion 
have  been  concealed  from  the  wise  and  the 
prudent  and  revealed  to  the  simple;  and  yet 
in  one  place  he  conceded  this  against  himself 
and  against  his  own  position.  "Moral  rules," 
he  says,  "apprehended  as  ideas  first,  and  then 
rigorously  followed  as  laws,  are,  and  must  be, 
for  the  sage  only.  The  mass  of  mankind  has 
neither  force  of  intellect  enough  to  apprehend 
them  clearly  as  ideas,  nor  force  of  character 
enough  to  follow  them  strictly  as  laws.  .  .  . 
The  paramount  virtue  of  religion  is,  that  it  has 
lighted  up  morality ;  that  it  has  supplied  the 
emotion  and  inspiration  needful  for  carrying 
the  sage  along  the  narrow  way  perfectly,  for 
carrying  the  ordinary  man  along  it  at  all. 
Even  the  religions  with  most  dross  in  them 
have  had  something  of  this  virtue ;  but  the 
Christian  religion  manifests  it  with  unex- 
ampled splendor."  ^     The  story  of  this  achieve- 

1  Essays  on  Marcus  Aurelius. 
[263  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

ment  is  contained  in  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
which  according  to  Arnold  are  literary  and  not 
scientific,  a  record  of  human  development 
pulsating  with  life  and  movement  and  not  a 
storehouse  for  proof-texts.  Morals,  not  meta- 
physics, are  the  essence  of  the  Bible ;  its  words 
are  fluid  utterances,  its  one  great  message  is 
righteousness.  And  once  these  truths  are  ap- 
prehended, the  forcing  of  the  Scriptures  will 
cease,  and  the  meaning  of  the  authors  will  no 
longer  be  obscured  by  artificial  interpretations. 

However  seriously  some  of  Arnold's  fol- 
lowers have  perverted  his  views  and  elevated 
beyond  measure  the  artistic  and  literary  senses 
in  which  he  believed  so  strongly,  he  himself 
was  thoroughly  sound  at  heart,  and  his  moral 
nature  was  of  the  highest.  He  affirms  that 
chastity  and  charity,  the  two  great  Christian 
virtues,  obtain  signal  testimony  from  experi- 
ence, and  by  many  palpable  proofs  have  con- 
vinced the  world  of  their  cardinal  nature.  The 
nations  that  neglect  them  plunge  into  the  doom 
of  ruin.  "Dowti  they  go;  Assyria  falls,  Bab- 
ylon, Greece,  Rome;  they  all  fall  for  want  of 
conduct,  righteousness ;  Judea  itself,  the  Holy 
Land,  the  land  of  God's  Israel,  falls  too,  and 
falls  for  want  of  righteousness."  ^ 

It  is  not  surprising  that  Arnold  should  have 
courted  the  acquaintance  of  such  master  spirits 
as  Spinoza  and  Marcus  Aurelius.     He  gives  a 

^  Literature  atid  Dogma,  p.  353. 
[264  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

succinct  and  interesting  description  of  the  phi- 
losopher of  Amsterdam,  whose  ejection  from  the 
synagogue  was  followed  by  his  ostracism  and 
subsequent  religious  independency.  Spinoza 
would  not  be  an  orthodox  Jew,  and  he 
could  not  become  a  Christian.  His  life,  how- 
ever, was  serene  and  devout,  with  frequent 
moods  of  religious  reflection.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment was  his  favorite  book,  and  his  critical 
work  on  it  made  him  one  of  the  pioneers  in 
biblical  criticism.  His  motto  was,  "Where 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty." 
Placed  by  his  transcendent  gifts  and  the  scorn 
of  his  kinsmen  beyond  temporary  organized 
religious  forms,  he  dwelt  in  an  enforced  yet 
welcome  isolation ;  which  w^on  for  him  Arnold's 
sympathy  and  praise.  Marcus  Aurelius  was 
another  striking  case  of  religious  independency. 
He  had  a  strongly  ethical  nature  attached  to 
no  definitely  religious  creed.  If  Constantine 
was  a  baptized  Pagan,  Marcus  Aurelius  was 
an  unbaptized  Christian  ;  for  his  piety,  though 
not  classified,  was  sincere,  and  linked  him  to 
the  Shepherd  who  said,  "Other  sheep  have  I, 
which  are  not  of  this  fold."  He  was  the  last 
and  greatest  follower  of  Zeno ;  he  stripped 
Stoicism  of  its  sterner  aspects,  and  gave  to  it 
a  warmth  and  tenderness  alien  to  its  cold  and 
rigid  spirit.  His  singularity  made  him  accep- 
table to  Arnold,  who  reverenced  the  Emperor, 
though  he  admitted  that  his  system  was  in- 
\  26o  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

effectual.  The  characteristics  of  Spinoza  and 
Marcus  AureHiis  were  seized  by  Arnold  for  the 
consolation  and  help  of  his  own  unconventional 
nature.  Concerning  Aurelius  he  says:  "He 
remains  the  especial  friend  and  comforter  of 
all  clear-headed  and  upward-striving  men,  in 
those  ages  most  especially  which  walk  by 
sight  and  not  by  faith  and  yet  have  no  open 
vision;  he  cannot  give  such  souls,  perhaps, 
all  they  yearn  for,  but  he  gives  them  much, 
and  what  he  gives  they  can  receive."  ^ 

Arnold  is  unusually  severe  upon  the  delin- 
quencies of  authors,  and  their  intellectual 
brilliancy  does  not  blind  him  to  their  ethical 
defects.  Coleridge,  he  says,  had  no  morals; 
his  character  inspired  repugnance.  Burns  he 
calls  a  beast  with  splendid  gleams.  The  laxity 
of  Goethe's  life  is  sharply  condemned ;  and 
Faust,  though  great,  was  marred  by  the  fact 
that  it  was  a  drama  of  seduction.  He  regarded 
Renan's  UAhhesse  de  Jouarre  as  a  book  entirely 
unworthy  of  the  author.  Heine,  with  all  his 
gifts,  lacked  the  old-fashioned,  laborious,  eter- 
nally needful  moral  deliverance,  and  left  a 
name  stained  by  wickedness,  sensuality,  and 
incessant  mocking.  The  Life  of  Shelley  deeply 
shocked  him,  and  he  declared,  after  reading 
the  book,  tliat  he  felt  sickened  forever  of  the 
subject  of  irregular  relations. 

In  1883  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arnold  visited  America, 

'  Essays  in  Criticism,  First  Series,  p.  378. 

[266  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

and  were  received  with  cordiality  by  his  ad- 
mirers and  and  with  characteristic  hospitahty 
by  the  nation  at  large.  Many  were  surprised 
to  find  him  a  broad-shouldered,  manly  English- 
man, with  a  face  worn  and  wrinkled  like  that 
of  a  sea-captain,  and  a  profile  whose  finely 
chiseled  features  betokened  breeding  and  the 
power  of  command.  His  appearance  contra- 
dicted the  expectations  of  those  who  had 
prejudged  it  by  the  fastidious  and  feminine 
delicacy  of  some  of  his  writings.  Because  of 
his  lack  of  elocutionary  gifts,  the  lectures  he 
delivered  were  not  heard  by  the  majority  of 
his  audience.  When  printed  and  published, 
they  became  his  favorite  book  and  the  one 
by  which  he  desired  to  be  remembered.  He 
valued  his  American  friends,  but  cared  little 
for  Americans  as  a  people.  Their  life  was  un- 
interesting; and  the  mere  nomenclature  of  the 
country  acted  upon  a  cultivated  person  "like 
the  incessant  pricking  of  pins." 

He  came  again  in  1886,  and  returned  home 
to  die  on  April  15,  1888,  of  the  malady  which 
had  struck  down  his  father  and  grandfather 
and  which  suddenly  released  him  from  the 
responsibilities  and  cares  of  mortal  life. 

It  is  impossible  to  set  forth  within  the 
available  limits  of  this  brief  survey  the  numer- 
ous aspects  of  so  diversified  a  character  and 
career  as  Arnold's.     The  place  he  holds  as  a 

[  2G7  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

critic  has  been  determined  by  his  excellent 
canons  of  criticism  and  by  the  exquisite  purity 
of  his  language.  He  made  no  pretensions  to 
be  a  philosopher,  although  he  had  a  philosophy 
of  his  own ;  but  his  thought  was  not  distin- 
guished for  depth  or  penetration.  He  popular- 
ized the  best  French  literature;  he  registered  a 
necessary  protest  against  treating  the  Bible  as 
a  talisman:  he  rebuked  with  skilful  audacity 
the  vulgarities  of  a  commercial  nation,  and 
he  used  a  few  pregnant  phrases,  some  of  which 
he  borrowed,  to  chasten  his  contemporaries. 
But  his  permanent  influence  will  be  found,  if 
anywhere,  in  his  poetry.  Here,  although  "the 
grand  moment  is  not  his  in  certain  command," 
he  sounded  depths  which  his  prose  never 
fathomed.  A  disciple  of  Wordsworth  even 
more  than  of  Goethe,  Arnold  takes  his  place 
among  the  Victorian  singers  as  a  poet  of  nature, 
of  beauty,  and,  more  than  either,  of  doubt. 
It  is  doubt  tinged  with  melancholy;  he  is  loth 
to  leave  the  former  habitations  of  his  spirit, 
and  he  looks  back  upon  them  with  infinite 
desire  and  infinite  regret.^  From  these  mingled 
elements  are  evoked  his  most  intimate  strains; 
and  though  he  cannot  speak  to  the  popular 
heart,  so  long  as  men  love  intensely  refined 
and  classic  forms,  or  seek  a  balm  for  their 
restless  and  unsatisfied  yearnings,  they  will 
continue    to    read    Resignation,    Dover    Beach, 

^  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  11th  edition,  Vol.  IX,  p.  641. 

[268  1 


Matthew  Arnold 

and  Thyrsis.  His  influence  upon  the  whole 
was  an  excellent  one;  and  as  the  irritating 
flippancies  which  retarded  it  are  rightly  for- 
gotten, his  truly  religious  nature  and  ethical 
earnestness  will  become  more  manifest.  His 
sincerity  and  courage  have  already  been  men- 
tioned, and  they  are  what  we  should  expect 
from  such  a  man.  He  lived  a  happy  and 
useful  life  ;  he  increased  the  luster  of  an  already 
honored  name;  and  he  secured  a  high  place 
in  the  annals  of  that  great  literature  which  he 
loved  and  longed  to  benefit. 


269 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


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By  Edward  B.  Poulton.      (Macmillan  Co.) 

Life  of  Darwin.  By  G.  T.  Bellamy.  Walter 
Scott,  London. 

Origin  of  Species.  By  Charles  Darwin. 
Murray,  London,  1859. 

Descent  of  Man.  By  Charles  Darwin. 
Murray,  London,  1871. 

Darwin's  Autobiography  and  Letters.  D.  Apple- 
ton  &  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1893. 

Life  and  Letters  of  Charles  Darwin.  Edited  by 
Francis  Darwin.     D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  N.  Y. 

Fifty  Years  of  Danvinism.  By  various  authors. 
Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1909. 

Darwinism  and  Htiman  Life.  By  J.  Arthur 
Thomson.     Henry  Holt  &  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1909. 

Life  and  Evolution.  By  F.  W.  Headley.  Duck- 
worth &  Co.,  London,  1909. 

Darwinism  and  Other  Essays.  By  John  Fiske. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1885. 

Pioneers  of  Evolution.  By  Edward  Clodd. 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1897. 

The  Story  of  Nineteenth-Century  Science.  By 
H.  S.  Williams,  M.D.  Harper  &  i3rothers,  N.  Y., 
1902. 

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Darwinism.  By  Alfred  Russel  Wallace. 
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My  Life.  By  Alfred  Russel  Wallace.  2  vols. 
Dodd,  Mead,  &  Co.,  N.  Y. 

The  Coming  of  Evolution.  By  Professor  Judd. 
Cambridge  University  Press,  1910. 


Life  and  Letters  of  Thomas  H.  Huxley.  By 
Leonard  Huxley.  2  vols.  D.  Appleton  &  Co., 
N.  Y.,  1900. 

Thomas  H.  Huxley.  By  J,  R.  Ainsworth 
Davis.     E.  P.  Dutton  &  Co.,  N.  Y. 

Collected  Essays.  By  Professor  Huxley. 
D.  Appleton  &  Co. 

Methods  and  Results. 
Darwiniana. 
Science  and  Education 
Science  and  Hebrew  Tradition. 
Science  and  Christian  Tradition. 
Evolution  and  Ethics. 
Christian  Theism  and  a  Spiritual  Monism.     By 
W.    L.   Walker.     T.    &.    T.    Clark,    Edinburgh, 
1907. 

The  Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion.  By 
A.  M.  Fairbairn,  D.D.  Hodder  &  Stoughton, 
London,  1905. 

The  Immanence  of  God.  By  Borden  P.  Bowne. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1903. 

Personalism.  By  Borden  P.  Bowne.  Houghton 
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John  Stuart  MilVs  Autobiography.  Henry  Holt  & 
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John  Stuart  Mill.  By  W.  L.  Courtney.  Walter 
Scott,  London. 

Letters  of  John  Stuart  Mill.  2  vols.  Edited  by 
Hugh  Elliot.  Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.,  London, 
1910. 

Three  Essays  on  Religion.  By  J.  S.  Mill. 
Longmans,  Green,  &  Co.,  London. 

Essay  On  Liberty.  By  J.  S.  Mill.  Longmans, 
Green,  &  Co.,  London. 

Utilitarianism.  By  J.  S.  Mill.  Longmans, 
Green,  &  Co.,  London. 

Miscellanies,  Fourth  Series.  By  John  Morley. 
The  Macmillan  Co. 

Tennyson,  Ruskin,  and  Mill.  By  Frederic 
Harrison.     The  Macmillan  Co. 

Walter  Bagehofs  Collected  Works.  Vol.  V.  Hart- 
ford, Conn.,  1891. 

Development  of  English  Thought.  By  Professor 
Simon  N.  Patten.     The  Macmillan  Co.,  1910. 

Unbelief  in  the  Nineteenth  Century.  By  H.  C. 
Sheldon.     Eaton  &  Mains,  N.  Y. 


The  Life  and  Letters  of  James  Mariineau.  2  vols. 
By  James  Drummond.     Dodd,  Mead,  &  Co.,  N.  Y. 

James  Mariineau :  A  Biography  and  Study. 
By  A.  W.  Jackson.     Little,  Brown,  &  Co.,  Boston. 

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Dr.  Martineau's  Philosophy.     By  C.  B.  Upton. 
E.  Nisbet  &  Co.,  London,  1905. 
Dr.  Martineau's  Chief  Works. 

1.  A  Study  of  Religion.    2  vols.  Henry  Fro wde, 
London. 

2.  Types    of  Ethical    Theory.     2   vols.     Henry 
Frowde,  London. 

3.  Seat  of  Authority  in  Religion.     2  vols.     Long- 
mans, Green,  &  Co.,  London. 

4.  Essays,  Reviews,  and  Addresses.    4  vols.    Long- 
mans, Green,  &  Co.,  London. 

5.  A  Study  of  Spinoza.     The  Macmillan  Co. 

6.  Endeavors  after  the  Christian  Life.     Longmans, 
Green,  &  Co. 

7.  Hours  of  Thought.     Longmans,  Green,  &  Co. 

8.  Studies   of   Christianity.      Longmans,   Green, 
&  Co. 


Matthew    Arnold.     By     Herbert     Paul.     The 
Macmillan  Co.,  1907. 

Matthew  Arnold.    By  G.  W.  E.  Russell.    Hodder 
&  Stoughton,  London,  1904. 

Matthew  Arnold.     By  W.   H.   Dawson.     G.   P. 
Putnam's  Sons,  N.  Y.,  1904. 

Matthew   Arnold.     By    Professor    Saintsbury. 
Blackwood  &  Sons,  Edinburgh. 

Poetical  Works  of  Matthew  Arnold.     The  Macmil- 
lan Co.,  1895. 

Essays    in    Criticism.     By    Matthew    Arnold. 
2  vols.     The  Macmillan  Co. 
I  IIW  1 


Bibliography 

Literature  and  Dogma.  By  Matthew  Arnold. 
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St.  Paul  and  Protestantism.  By  Matthew 
Arnold.     The  Macmillan  Co. 

Culture  and  Anarchy.  By  Matthew  Arnold. 
The  Macmillan  Co. 

Discourses  in  America.  By  Matthew  Arnold. 
The  Macmillan  Co. 

Mixed  Essays.  By  Matthew  Arnold.  The 
Macmillan  Co. 


[277] 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Agassiz,  Professor,  22 
Agnosticism,  71,  86,  130 
America  and  Americans,  62, 267, 

230 
Arnold,  Matthew,  birth,  early 
life  and  education,   210-211; 
university    career,    213-214; 
marriage,  217;    as  poet  and 
professor  of  poetry,  217-229; 
as  literary  and  social  critic, 
229-241;     on    contemporary 
authors,   242-243;    on   Puri- 
tanism and  Culture,  243-246; 
on  theology,  258-261;  death, 
267;     summary    of    achieve- 
ments, 268-269. 
Arnold,  Dr.  Thomas,  209-212 
Arnold,  Mrs.  Thomas,  211 
Aurelius,  Marcus,  264-265 

Bagehot,  Walter,  92,  122,  124 
Bain,  Alexander,  96,  137 
Bentham,  Jeremy,  97,  101,  111- 

112.  115,  164 
Bible,  The,  68,  162-163,  264 
Bowne,  Borden  P.,  119 
Bright,  John,  129 
Browning,  Robert,  119 
Bushnell,  Horace,  162 

Carlyle,    Thomas,    50,    78,    85, 

112,  117-119,  124-125,  138 
(^arpontcr.  Dr.  Lant,  140 
Catastrophic  Theory,  12-13,  23 
Chalk,   Huxley's  Lecture  on  a 
Piece  of,  59 


Character,  Huxley  on,  62 
Christ,  74,  76,  134,  137,  262 
Civil  War  in  Nature,  63-64 
Clifford,  W.  K..  170 
Cobbe,    Miss    Frances    Power, 

153-154 
Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor,  103 
Commonsense  Philosophy,  92- 

93,  114-116 
Comte,  Auguste,  25,  93,  121 
Conscience,       166-167,       170; 

preaching  to,  174-175 
Conte,  Le,  77 
Conway,  Moncure  D.,  150 
Cosmic  process,  63-77 
Courtney,  W.  L.,  138,  139 
Criticism,  Literary,  231-238 

Darwin,  Charles,  birth  and 
ancestry,  3-4;  early  life  and 
education,  5-6;  studies  at 
Edinburgh  and  Cambridge, 
7-8;  first  interest  in  science, 
8;  voyageof  the  Beagle,  9-10; 
reading  of  Malthus  suggests 
Natural  Selection,  14;  con- 
current discovery  of  Natural 
Selection  by  Wallace,  15; 
Linna^an  Society  decides  the 
issue,  17;  publication  of 
Origin  of  Species.  15,  22-23 
issues  Descent  of  Man,  30 
chronic  ill-health,  38-39 
prodigious  toil,  39;  religious 
life,  5,  40;  loss  of  lesthetic 
tastes,  41;    influence  on  his 


[281] 


Index 


generation,  42-44;  death  and 
tribute  of  Huxley,  43;   burial 
in    Westminster  Abbey,    43- 
44;  referred  to,  133 
Davison,  Dr.  W.  T.,  160,  189 
Dawson,  Sir  William,  47 
Dawson,  William  H.,  212,  258, 

262 
Death,  by  preventable  disease, 

65;  universal,  70 
Deism,  118 

Descent  of  Man,  30-31 
Direct  creation,  21,  26-27 
Disraeli,  Benjamin,  128 
Dreisch,  Professor  Hans,  172 

Education,  James  Mill  on,  94- 
95;  Huxley  on,  57-58 

English  people,  242 

Evolution,  doctrine  of,  11; 
materialistic  interpretation 
of,  24-25;  ethics  and,  62-67; 
homocentric,  32;  Theology 
and,  26-38;  Theism  and,  67 

Fairbairn,  A.  M.,  Professor,  71, 

133 
Fiske,  John,  20,  76,  183 
Freewill,  172-173 
French  Revolution,  91 
Frothingham,  Rev.  O.  B.,  157 

Genius,  explosive  power  of,  72- 

73 
Gladstone,  W.  E.,  3,  73,  80-81, 

129 
God,  147, 182,  190.  195,  259-260 
Grote,  George,  123,  124 

Haeckel,  Ernst.  70 
Harrison,  Frederic,  92,  130 


Hegel,  166,  181 

Hell,  present,  192 

Higginson,  Rev.  Edward,  146 

Hogarth,  110 

Huguenots  in  England,  143- 
144 

Hume,  David,  92,  108,  118 

Humor,  Huxley's,  83 

Huxley,  Thomas  H.,  birth  and 
parentage,  49;  early  life  and 
education,  50-51;  medical 
training,  52;  Rattlesnake 
cruise,  53;  first  contributions 
to  Science,  52-53;  elected 
Fellow  of  Royal  Society,  54; 
marriage,  56;  as  popular 
lecturer,  58;  visit  to  America, 
60;  scope  of  labors,  77-78; 
as  controversialist,  80-82; 
not  a  materialist,  72,  85; 
honors,  78;  his  agnosticism, 
71;  view  of  skepticism,  86; 
death,  87;  referred  to  133 

Idealism,  German,  118 
Ideals,  193 

Immortality,  76-77,  204-205 
Incarnation,  Universal,  185-186 
Innate  goodness,  161-163 
Innate  ideas,  108 

Jevons,  Professor  Stanlej',  124 
Jones,  Professor  Henry,  34 
Jones,  Professor  Wharton,  52 

Kelvin,  Lord,  33 

Lansdowne,  Lord,  217 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  3,  243 
Liverpool  Controversy,  149 
Locke,  John,  92 


282 


Index 


London,  destitution  of,  51-52 

Lotze,  119,  181,  184 

Louis  XIV,  143 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  Darwin's 
debt  to,  10;  on  presiding 
Mind  in  Evolution,  29;  re- 
ferred to,  39,  47,  153 

Madge,  Rev.  Thomas,  146 
Maine,  Sir  Henry,  222 
Malthus,  14-15 
Marmontel,  103 
Marsh,  Professor  O.  C,  60 
Martineau,  Gaston,  143 
Martineau,  Harriet,  145 
Martineau,  James,  ancestry  and 
birth,  143-145;  early  life  and 
education,  145-146;   divinity 
student  at  York,  147;    Dub- 
lin and  Liverpool  pastorates, 
148-149;  studies  in  Germany 
150-151;     academic    life    in 
London,      151-155;       death, 
159;    as  a  preacher,  152-154, 
198-199;    honored,   154-155; 
literary    style    of,     159-161; 
ethical  teachmg  of,  161-178; 
on     philosophy     of     religion, 
181-205;     on     biblical    criti- 
cism, 188-189 
Metaphysical  Society,  155 
Mill,  James,  93,  95, 115, 130, 169 
Mill,    John    Stuart,    parentage 
and   birth,   93-94;    educated 
by  his  father,  95-98;   visit  to 
France,  99;    conversion,  100; 
first     literary     efforts,     101; 
disillusionment,     10£;      inti- 
macy with  Mrs.  Taylor,  104- 
105;    death  at  Avignon,  107; 
his    philosophy    and    ethics 


discussed,  108-119;  political 
economy,  120-123;  influences 
that  shaped  his  thought,  92, 
93,  99,  121;  Logic,  123-124; 
social  and  religious  teaching, 
124-139;  Parliamentary  ca- 
reer, 128 

Milton,  John,  21-22,  175,  235- 
236 

Mivart,  St.  George,  58,  79,  84 

Morality,  Science  and,  67;  in- 
ternal, 168-170 

Morley,  Lord,  106-107,  133 

Nantes,  Edict  of,  143 
Natural  Selection,  18,  47 
Nature,  cruelty  of,  131-132 
Necessitarianism,  109 
Newman,  F.  W.,  150 
Newman,  John  Henry,  52,  71, 

213 
Nicoll,  Sir  WilHam  Robertson, 

106 
Nietzsche,  26 


Owen,  Sir  Richard,  47,  80 
Oxford,     Arnold's    tribute 
214,  215 


to. 


Paley,  92 

Pattison,  Professor,  202 

Philistinism,  249,  251 

Philosophy,  ancient  and  modern 
contrasted,  164-165 

Pierre,  William,  143 

Poetry,  function  of,  220;  ro- 
manticism in,  221;  quota- 
tions from  Arnold's,  212, 
218;  224-226,  228,  240; 
Arnold's  verse  and  the  spirit 
of  the  age,  221-225,  227 


[283] 


Ind 


ex 


Priestley,  Joseph,  Dr.,  186 
Puritanism,  92,  224-Si49 

Qualitative  Calculus,  111-114 

Radicalism  and  mob  law,  128 
Rattlesnake,    voyage    of,     52- 

53 
Religion,    science    and,    68-77; 

morality  and,  263 
Righteousness,  247,  260-264 
Romanes     Lecture,     Huxley's, 

62,  77 
Romanism  and  Protestantism, 

255-256 

Sacrifice,  personal,  161,  176 
Saint  Simon,  121 
Saintsbury,  Professor,  242 
Scale  of  Moral  Excellence,  173- 

174 
Schleiermacher,  200 
Self-realization,  113-114 
Sheldon,  Professor,  110 
Shrewsbury,  description  of,  3-5 
Skepticism,  73-74,  86 
Social  Problem,  the,  126,  128 
Social  sanction,  170-172 
Social  Science,  126 
Species,     Darwin's    Origin    of, 

15,  48;    exposition  of,  18-20; 

Arnold  on,   12;    Wallace  on, 

17-18;   Huxley  on,  48 
Spencer,  Herbert,  109,  119,  168, 

170 
Spinoza,  265 
Stephen,   Sir  Leshe,    109,    113, 

131.  167-168,  170 


St.  Francis,  237-238 
Struggle  for  life,  63-64 
Superman,   Nietzsche's  doctrine 
of,  26 

Taylor,  Miss,  105,  106 
Taylor,  Mrs.,  104-105,  126 
Tennyson,  Lord,  3,  87,  133,  138, 

243 
Theism,  Mill's,  132-134;    Mar- 

tineau's,  198,  201,  204 
Tractarian  Movement,  213 
Turner,  Rev.  Henry,  146 
Tyndall,  Professor.  34,  78 
Tyrell,  Professor  R.  Y.,  218 

Uniformitarians,  13 
Unitarianism,  tendency  of,  196, 

203 
Utilitarian  Society,  100-101 
Utilitarianism,     108,     114-117; 

ethics  of,  164 
Utility  of  Religion,  133 

Wallace,  Alfred  Russel,  at 
Temate,  15;  on  Darwin's 
Origin  of  Species,  17-18;  on 
the  origin  of  man,  31;  re- 
ferred to,  39 

Watkinson,  W.  L.,  247 

Weismann,  30 

Wesley,  John,  145-146 

Wilberforce,  Bishop,  80 

Will,  the,  109 

Wordsworth,  William,  91,  103, 
118,  211,  223 

Zeitgeist,  the,  261 


284 


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10  JAMES  CLARKE  AND  CO.'S 

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Gloria    Patrl ;    or,   Our  Talks  About  the  Trinity.     By  J.  M. 

Whitox.     Cloth.  33.  6d. 

God's  Greater  Britain.  Letters  and  Addresses  by  John 
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CATALOGUE  OF  BOOKS  11 


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EMMA    JANE    WORBOISE'S   NOVELS 

Crown  8vo,  uniformly  bound  in  cloth,  33.  6d.  each. 

St  Beetha'5.  MilHcent  Kendrick. 

Violet  Vaughan.  Robert  Wreford's  Daughter. 

Singlehurst  Manor.  Joan  Carisbroke. 

Overdale.  5i85ie. 

Qrey  and  Gold.  Esther  Wynne. 

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Chrystabel. 

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The  Beads  of  Tasmer.  A  Border  Shepherdess. 

A  Sister  to  Esau.  Paul  and  Christina. 

5he  Loved  a  Sailor.  The  Squire  of  Sandal  Side. 

The  Last  of  the  MacAllisters.  Between  Two  Loves. 

Woven  of  Love  and  Qlory.  A  Daughter  of  Fife. 

For  other  boolct  by  thii  Author  tee  pagei  4  and  18. 


THE    MESSAGES    OF   THE    BIBLE 

Edited  by  Fkank  Knight  Sanders,  Ph.D.,  Woolsey  Pro- 
fessor of  Biblical  Literature  in  Yale  University,  and  Charles 
Foster  Kent,  Ph.D.,  Professor  of  Bibhcal  Literature  and 
History  in  Brown  University.  Super  royal  16mo,  cloth,  red 
top,  3s.  6d.  a  vol.     (To  be  completed  in  12  Volumes.) 

I.  The  Messages  of  thr  Earlier  PRorHETs. 
II.  The  Messages  of  the  Later  Prophets. 

III.  The  Messages  of  Israel's  Law  Givers. 

IV.  The  Messages  of  the   Prophetical  and   Priestly 

Historians. 
V.  The  Messages  of  the  Psalmists. 
VIII.  The  Messages  of  the  Apocalyptical  Writers. 
IX.  The  Messages  of  Jesus  according  to  the  Synoptists. 
X.  The  Messages  of  Jesus  According  to  the  Gospel 
OF  John. 
XI.  The  Messages  of  Paul. 
XIT.  The  AIessages  of  the  Apostles. 

Vohimes  VI.  and  VII.  will  appear  at  intervals. 

"  Such  a  work  ia  of  the  utmost  service  to  every  student  of  the  Scriptures." 

— The  Dundee  Advertiser. 


12  JAMES  CLARKE  AND  CO.'S 

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CATALOGUE  OF  BOOKS  13 

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Problems   of   Immanence.      Studies  Critical    and  Constructive. 

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The   Challenge,  and  Other    Stories    for    Boys    and   Girls. 

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My  Neighbour  and  God.  A  Reply  to  Robert  Blatchford's  "  God 
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The  New  Testament  In  Modern  5peech<  An  idiomatic 
translation  into  everyday  English  from  the  text  of 
"  The  Resultant  Greek  Testament."  By  the  late 
Richard  Francis  Weymouth,  M.A.,  D.Lit.,  Fellow  of 
University  College,  London,  and  formerly  Head  Master  of 
MUl  Hill  School,  Editor  of  "  The  Resultant  Greek  Testament." 
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•1  JAMES  CLARKE  AND  CO.'S 


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Christianity  in  Common  Speech:  Suggestions  for  an  Every- 
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S9 


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Jesus.  By  Alexander  A. 
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CATALOGUE   OF   BOOKS  27 


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and  inspire  the  Church's  workers  at  home  and  abroad  for  fresh  sacrifice." 

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Tennyson,  Ebenezer  Elliott,  Whittier,  G.  Herbert,  C.  Wesley,  Thomas 
Hughes,  J.  H.  Newman,  Lonpfellow,  Bonar,  and  others.  While' the  purely 
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trated."—Xttoan/  TPorW, 


•A 


JAMES    CLARKE    AND    CO.'S 


Index    of    Titles 


Abbey  Mill,  The  .  .  .  17 
Adrift  on  the  Black  Wild  Tide  16 
America  in  the  East      .  .        5 

Ancient  Musical  Instruments  .  20 
Angels  of  God,  The         .  .21 

Animal  Gambols  .  .  .23 

Animal  Playtime  .  .  .23 
Anne  KUligrew  ...  4 
Apocalyptical     Writers,     The 

Messages  of  the       .  .11 

Apostles,  The  Messages  of  the  11 
Applied  Christianity       .  .26 

Aspects  of  the  Spiritual  .  7 
Asquith,  TheRight  Hon.  H.  H., 

M.P 7 

At  the  Gates  of  the  Dawn  .  22 
Atonement  and  Progress  .      16 

Atonement  in  Modem  Thought, 

The        ....        8 
Aunt  Asatha  Ann  .  .      ?5 

Authority  &  the  Light  Within  16 
Awe  of  the  New  Centiiry,  The  .  25 
Baptist  Handbook,  The  .      15 

Baptist  Manual  of  the  Order 

and    Administration  of   a 

Church,  A       .  .  .19 

Barrow,  Henry,  Separatist  .  2 
Beads  of  Tasmer,  The  .  11,  18 
Between  Two  Loves  .  11,  27 
Bible    Definition    of    Religion, 

The        .  .  .  .26 

Birthday  of  Hope,  The  .     26 

Bishop  and  the  Caterpillar.  The  25 
Black  Familiars,  The  .  4,  17 
Border  Shepherdess,  A  .  .11 

Bow   of  Orange  Ribbon,   The 

18,     27 
Britain's   Hope      .  .  .20 

Bruden«ll3  of  Brude,  The  .  17 
Burning  Questions  .  .      20 

Canonbury  Holt    .  .  .17 

Cartoons  of  St.  Mark      .  .        5 

Challenge,   The      .  .  .14 

Character  through  Inspiration  21 
Chats  with  Women  on  Every- 
day Subjects  .  .  .18 
Children's  Pace,  The  .  .  ~0 
Children's  Paul,  The  .  .17 
Christ  and  Everyday  Life  .  13 
Christ  of  the  Children,  Tlie  .  17 
Christ  that  is  To  Be,  The  .  10 
Christ,  The  Private  Relation- 
ships of  ...  5 
Christ  VVithin,  The  .  .21 
Christ's  Pathway  to  the  Crosi     18 


21 


Christian  Baptism  . 

Christian  Certitude        . 
Christian  Life.  The 
Christian  of  To-day,  The 
Christian  World  Pulpit,  The 
Christianity  in  Common  Speech 
Chrystabel     .  .  .11. 

Church  and  Modern  Life,  The 
Church  and  the  Kingdom,  The 
Church  and  the  Next  Genera 

tion.  The 
Church  Questions  of  our  Time 
Cinderella 

City  of  Delight,  The       . 
Comforts  of"  God,  The   . 
Common  Life,  The 
Common-sense  Christianity 
Conquered  World,  The  .      21 
Conquering  Prayer 
Continuation    Schools    from 

Higher  Point  of  View 
Counter-attractions      to      the 

Public-house 
Courage  of  the  Coward,  The 
Crucible  of  Experience,  The 

Daughter  of  Fife,  A   .   H,  18, 
Debt  of  the  Damerals,  The 
Divine  Satisfaction,  The 
Do  We  Need  a  New  Theology 
Dutch  in  the  Med  way.  The 

Earlier  Prophets,  The  Messages 

of  the     . 
Earliest  Christian  Hymn,  The 
Early  Pupils  of  the  Spirit 
Education  of  a  Soul,  The 
Emilia's  Inheritemce 
England's  Danger 
Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  The 
Esther  Wynne        .  .11 

Eternal  Religion,  The  . 
Evangelical  Heterodoxy 
Evolution    of    Old  Testament 

Religion,  The 
Exposition,  The  Art  of 
Ezekiel,  The  Book  of      . 

Faces  in  the  Mist.  . 

Faith  and  Form    .  . 

]'"iiith  and  Verification     . 

Faith  of  a  Wayfarer,  The 

Faiih  the  Bo^iiiuinj;.  Self-Sur 
render  the  Fultilm'^nt,  of 
the  Spiritual  Life     .      21 

Family  Prayers  for  Morning  Use 

Father  Fabian 


FAoa 
it 


CATALOGUE    OF    BOOKS 


20 


Fifty  Years'  Reminiscences  of  a 
Free  Church  Musician 

Fireti  le  Fairy  Tales 

First  Christians,  The     . 

Flowor-o'-the-Com  . 

Forgotten  Slieaf,  The     . 

Fortune's  Favourit* 

Fortunes  of  Cyril  Donham,  Tlio 
17, 

Fragments  of  Thought  . 

*  Freedom  of   Faith  "  Series 
The        .  .  . 

Friend  Olivia 

Gamble  with  Life,  A 
Garrisoned  Soul,  The     • 
Gloria  Patri 
Glorious      Cornpany      of      the 

Apostles,  The 
God's  Greater  Britain    • 
Golden  Truths  for  Young  Folli 
Good  New  Times,  The     • 
Gospel  of  Grace,  The     . 
Grey  and  Gold       .  .11 

Grey  House  at  Endlestone 
Growing  Revelation,  The 

Harvest  Gleanings 
Health  and  Home  Nursing 
Health  in  the  Home  Life 
Heart  of  Jessy  Laurie,  The 
Heartsoa.«e  in  the  Family 
Heavenly  Visions  . 

Heirs  of  Errington,  The  . 
Helen  Bury  . 

Helps  to  Health  and  Beauty 
Higlier  on  the  Hill 
His  Next  of  Kin    .  .11 

His  Rustic  Wife    , 
History  of  the  United  States,  A 
Holidays  in  Animal  Land 
Holy  Christian  Empire  . 
Holy  Spirit,  The    . 
House  of  Bondnpc,  The  , 
House  of  the  Secret,  The 
llo\?  to  15ecorne  Like  Christ 
How  to  Road  the  Bible  . 
How  to  Restore  the  Yeoman 

peasantry  of  England 
Husbands  and  Wives 

Tdcals  for  Girls 

Ideals  in  Sunday  School  Teach 

ing  .  .    _      . 

Immanence  of  Christ  in  Modem 

Life.  The 
Impropnable  Faith,  An  . 
Incarnation  of   tlio  Lord,  The 
industrial    Exploriiig-i    in    uiul 

around  London 


13 
'J  3 
9 
17 
20 
17 

27 
10 


10 

22 
10 

16 
10 
23 
15 

8 
17 
17 

5 
I5 
23 
13 

4 
12 

6 
17 
12 
24 

6 
17 
10 

2 

23 
27 
19 
17 
4 
21 
23 

26 
17 


19 

13 

13 

5 

10 


PAGE 

Infoldings   and   Unfoldings   of 

the  Divine  Genius  . 
Inner  Mission  Leaflets,  The 
Inner  Mission  Pamphlets,  The 
Inspiration  in  Common  Life 
Interludes  in  a  Time  of  Change 
Invisible    Companion,  The 
Inward    Light,    The 
Israel's      Law     Givera,      The 

Messages  of     . 

Jan  Vedder'e  Wife         .       18, 

Jealousy  of  God,  The     . 

Jesus  and  His  Teaching  . 

Jesus  or  Christ  7  . 

Jesus  ;    Seven  Questions 

Jesus,  The  First  Things  of 

Jesus,  The  Messages  of.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Gospel  of  John 

Jesus,  The  Messages  of.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Synoptista 

Joan  Carisbroke    .  .11 

Job  and  His  Comforters  . 

Joshua,  The  Book  of 

Judges  of  Jesus,  The     . 

Judges,  The  Book  of 

Kid  McGhie  ... 
Kingdom   of  the   Lord   Jesus, 
The        ...       21 

Kit  Ketmedy  :  Country  Boy    3 

Lady  Clarissa 

Last  of  the  MacAllisters,  The 

U 

Later  Prophets,  The  Messages 

of  the    . 
Leaves  for  Quiet  Hours  . 
Let  us  Pray  .  .  . 

Letters  of  Christ,  The    . 
Liberty  and  Religion 
Life  and  Letters  of  Alexander 

Mackennat,    The 
Life    and    Teaching   of   Jesus, 

Notes  on  the 
Life  and  the  Ideal 
Life,  Faith,  and  Prayer  of  th 

Church 
Life  in  His  Name.  , 

Life's  Beginnings  . 

Lifted  Veil,  A  .  ■ 

Loves  of  Miss  Anne,  The       3 
Lynch.  Rev.  T.  T.  :  A  Memoir 
Lyrics  of  the  Soul 
Making  of  Heaven   and  Hell 

The 
Making  o:   Personality,  The 
Manual  for  Free  Chuicli  Minis 

ters,  A   . 
Margaret  Torr'ngton      .       17 


80 


JAMES    CLARKE    AND    CO.'S 


Martineau's  Study  of  Religion 
21 
Maud   Bolingbroke 
Merry   Animal   Picture  Book 

The        .  .         . 

Messages  of  Hope  .         , 
Messages  of  the  Bible,  The 
Millicent  Kendrick  .       1 

Ministry      of       the      Modern 

Church,  The   . 
Miss  Devereux,  Spinster 
Model  Prayer,  The 
Modem  Minor  Prophets 
Modem  Theories  of  Sin. 
More  Tasty  Dishes 
Morning  and  Evening  Cries 
Morning  Mist,  A  . 
Morning,  Noon,  and  Night 
Momington  Lecture,  The 
Mr.  Montmorency's  Money   1 
My  Baptism  .  , 

My  Belief       i         i         i 
My  Neighbour  and  God  . 

New  Evangel,  The 

New  Mrs.  Lascelles,  The 

New    Testament    in    Modern 

Speech,  The    . 
Nineteen  Hundred  T 
Nobly  Bom  , 
Nonconformist  Church  Build 

ings 

Old  Pictures  in  Modem  Frames 
Oliver  Cromwell     .  , 

Oliver  Westwood  .  . 

Our  City  of  God    . 
Our  Girls'  Cookery 
Ourselves  and  the  Universe 
Outline      Text      Lessons      for 

Junior  Classes 
Overdale       ...       1 
Passion  for  Souls,  The    . 
Paton,  J.  B.,  M.A.,  D.D. 
Paul  and  Christina 
I'aul,  The  Messages  of    . 
Pearl    Divers    of     Roncador 

Reef,  The      . 
Personality  of  Jesua,  The 
Pilot,  The     . 
Plain  Talks  . 
Poems.      ]?v  Mmo.  Cxiyon 
Poems  of  Mackenzie  Bell,  The 
Polychrome  Bible,  The  . 
Popular     Argument     for     the 

Unity  of  Isaiah,  A  . 
Popular   History   of   the   Free 

Churches,  A  . 
Practical    Lay    Preaching 

Speaking  to  Men     . 


26 
12 

23 

8 

11 

17 

13 

18 
16 
12 

7 
24 
16 
18 
24 

5 
17 
16 

8 
14 

13 
18 

14 
10 
17 

15 
21 
24 
17 
9 
25 
27 

23 
17 
18 
6 
11 
11 

10 
12 
14 
22 
12 
14 
3 

15 

14 
14 


Practical    Points    in    Popular 

Proverbs 
Prayer 

Preaching  to  the  Times  . 
Price  of  Priestcraft,  The 
Pride  of  the  Family,  The 
Problems  of  Immanence 
Problems  of  Living 
Prophetical  and  Priestly  His 

torians.  The  Messages  of 
Psalmists,  The  Messages  of  the 
Purpose  of  the  Cross,  The 
Quickening  of  Caliban,  The 
Quiet      Hints      to      Growing 

Preachers  in  My  Study 
Race  and  Religion 
Reasonable  View  of  Life,  A 
Reasonableneaa  of  Jesus,  The 
Reasons    Why    for    Congrega 

tionalista 
Reasons  Why  for  Free  Church 

men 
Reform     in     Sunday     School 

Teaching 
Religion  and  Experience 
Religion  and  Mireu;Ie     . 
Religion  of  Jesua,  The    • 
Religion  that  will  Wear,  A 
Resultant    Greek    Testament, 

The 
Rights  of  Man,  The 
Rise  of  Philip  Barrett,  The 
Robert  Wreford's  Daughter 
Rogers,  J.  Guinneaa 
Rome  from  the  Inside    . 
Rosebud  Annual,  The    , 
Rose  of  a  Hundred  Leaves,  A 
Ruling   Ideas  of   the    Present 

Age 

Scoptre  Without  a  Sword,  The 
School   of   Calvary,  The 
School  Hymns        .  .        12, 

Scourge  of  God,  The 
Sculptors  of  Life 
Secondary  Education   for   the 

Industrial  Classes,  &c. 
Sermon  Illustration,  The  Art 

of 
Seven  PuzzHng  Bible  Books 
She  Loved  a  Sailor 
Ship  of  the  Soul,  The       .      21 
Ship's  Engines,  The 
Sidelights  on  New  Testamen 

Research 
Sidelights  on  Religion    . 
Siinplo  Cookery 
Simple  Thin2;a  of  the  Christian 

Life,  The 


CATALOGITE    OF   BOOKS 


81 


Singlehurst  Manor 
Bissie   .         .         .         .11, 
Sister  to  Epau,  A  .  .       11, 

Small  Books  on  Great  Subjects 
21, 
Social  Questions  of  the  Day    . 
Social  Salvation     . 
Social  Worship  an  Everlasting 

Necessity         .  .       21, 

Songs  of  Joy  and  Faith 
Squire  of  Sandal  Side,  Tlie    11, 
St.  Beetha's  .  11,   17, 

Storehouse  for  Preachers  and 

Teachers 
Stories  of  Old        ■ 
Story  of  Congregationalism  in 

Surrey,  The 
Story  of  Joseph  the  Dreamer, 

The        . 
Story  of  Penelope,  The  . 
Story  ot  the  English  Baptists, 

The        ...  . 

Studies  of  the  Soul  .        9, 

Sunday  Afternoon  Song  Book 

22, 

Sunday    Morning    Talks    with 

Boys  and  Girls 
Sunny  Memories  of  Australasia 
Supreme  Argument  for  Chris- 
tianity, The    . 

Tale  of  a  Telephone,  A 
Talks  to  Little  Folks 
Taste  of  Death  and  the  Life  of 
Grace.  The     .  .       21, 

Tasty   Dishes 
Ten  Commandments,  The 
Theology  and  Truth 
Theophihis  Trinal,  Memorials  of 
Things  Moat  Surely  Believed  . 


PAGE 

11,     17 


17 
13 

26 

26 

6 

26 
13 

18 

27 

20 
17 


16 
17 

g 

27 

27 

15 
20 

21 

26 
24 

26 
24 
15 
5 
5 
13 


PAGE 

Thomyoroft  Hall  .         .  .17 

Thoughts  for  Life's  Journey  .        8 

Through  Science  to  Faith  .        4 

Tools  and  the  Man          .  .        6 

Town    Romance,    A        .  ,18 

Transfigured  Church,  The  .       6 

Trial  and  Triumph           .  .      20 

True  Christ,  The             .  .     12 

Types  of  Christian  Life  .  .21 

Unemployable  and  the  Unem- 
ployed, The    .  .  .      26 
UngildedGold       .         *       13,    19 
Unique      Class      Chart      and 

"  "  27 

18 

18 

16 

3 

27 

8 

17 
21 
24 

4 

7 
19 
14 
18 

7 
17 
22 
19 
20 

8 
18 

12 
15 


Unknown  to  Herself 

Value  of  the  Apocrypha,  The 
Value  of  the  Old  Testament 
Vida    .... 
Violet  Vaughan     .  11,  17, 

Voice  from  China,  A      . 

Warleigh's  Trust  .  . 

Way  of  Life,  The  . 
Wayside  Angels     . 
Wei)  of  Circimistance,  The 
Westminster  Sermons    . 
Who  Wrote  the  Bible  ?  . 
Why  Wo  Believe    . 
Wideness  of  God's  Mercy,  The 
Winning  of  Immortality,  The 
Woman's  Patience,  A     . 
Women  and  their  Saviour 
Women  and  their  Work 
Words  by  the  Wayside  . 
Working  Woman's  Life,  A 
Woven  of  Love  and  Glory  11 

Yovmg  Man's  Ideal,  A 
Young  Man's  Religion,  A 


Index  of  Authors 


p 

AQE 

PAGE 

PAOK 

Abbott,  Lyman  4, 

8 

Barrett,  G.  S.       . 

15 

Brierley,  H.  E.      .      22 

Adeney,  W.  F.    8, 

23 

Barrows,  C.  H. 

12 

Briorley,  J.  6,  7,  9,     27 

Aked,  C.  F. 

9 

Becke,  Louis 

10 

Briggs,  C.  A.        .       5 

AUin,  T.       . 

20 

Bell,  Mackenzie    . 

14 

Brooke,     Stopford 

Andom,  R.  . 

10 

Bennett,  W.  H.      . 

3 

A.    .           .       21,      26 

Andrews,  C.  C. 

18 

Honvie,  Andrew    . 

6 

Brown,  C.      6,   18,     20 

Angus,     A     H.   . 

19 

Betta,  C.  H.        10 

13 

Knrford,   W.   K.    .      21 

Antram,  C.  E.  P.  . 

22 

Blako,  J.  M.         18 

19 

Burgin,  Isabel      .        4 

Armstrong,    R.  A. 

Bloundelle-Burton 

("ainpboll,  K.  J.     .         8 

.       21, 

20 

.T.     . 

18 

Carlilo,  J.  C.  .        9,      24 

Baker,  E.     . 

22 

Bosworth,  E.I. 

13 

Carman,   Bliss       .        5 

iiarr,  Amelia  F.. 

bradford,  Amory  I 

I. 

Cave,   Dr.     .           .8 

4.    11.    18, 

27 

5 

9 

Chick,   S.      .          .19 

32 


JAIIES   CLARKE    AND    CO.'S    CATALOGUE 


22 


FACE 

deal,  E.  E. .  .  « 
Clifford,  John  10,  21,  26 
Collins,  B.  G.  .16 
Crockett,  S.  R.  3,  17 
Cubitt,  James  .  15 
Cuff,   W.       .  .      20 

Darlow,  F.  H.  .  20 
Davidson,  Gladys.  Ti 
Dods,  Marcus  8,  21 
Ellas,  F.  .  .7 
Ellis,  J.  .  20,  23 
Evans.  H.    .  .22 

Famingham,  Mari- 
anne,  8,   10,    13, 
16,  19, 
Farrar,  Dean 
Finlayson,  T.  Camp 

bell 
Fiske,  J.       . 
Forsyth,  P.  T. 

8,  21,2(5, 
Fremantle,  Dean . 
Fumess.  H.  H.  . 
Gibbon,  J.  Morgan 
7. 
Giberne,  Agnes  . 
Gladden.Washinpton 

6,  8,   19,      20 
Glover,  R.  .  .22 

Godet,  Professor  .  8 
Gordon,  George  A.  7 
Gould,  G.  P.  .  19 
Greenhough,  J.  G. 

15,  21 
Griffis,  W.  E.  .  5 
Griffith -Jones,  E.  5,  21 
Grubb,  E.  16,     19 

Gunn,  E.H.  M.  12. 
Guyon,  Madame   . 
Harnack,  Professor 
Harris,    J.  Rendel 
Haupt,  P.    . 
Haweis,  H.  R. 
Haycraft,  Mrs. 
Heddle,  Ethol  F.  . 
Henson,  Canon  H. 
Hensley    .         7, 
Hill,  F.  A.  . 
Hocking,  S.  K. 
Horder,  W.  Garrett    21 
Home.  C.  Silvester 
4,  8,   13,  14,  18, 
Horton,  R.   F.     5, 
8,  19,  21,  24,  26. 
Hunter,  John        8, 
"J.  B."     of      The 
Chrittian    World 
J.  M.  G. 
Jefferson,  C.  E.    . 


27 

12 

8 

4 

2 

16 

10 

18 

10 

2 

10 


PAGE 

Jeffs,  H.    8,  7,  12, 

14,  15 

John,  Griffith        .  8 
Jon&s,  J.  D.  8,  13, 

16,  18,  19,  22,  26 
Jowett.J.  H.  6,  18,  J  9 
Kane.  James  J .  .  16 
Kennedy,  H.  A.  22,  27 
Kennedy,  John  .  15 
Kent,  C.  F.  .11 
Kenyon,  Edith  C.  18 
Lansfeldt,  L.  .18 
La  Touohe,  E.  D.  7 
Lee,  VV.  T.  .  .14 
Leggatt,  F.  Y.  .  19 
Lewis,  E.  W.  .18 
Llewellyn,  D.  J.  .  20 
Lyall.  David  4,  15 
Lynch,  T.  T.  .5 
Lynd,  William  .  20 
Macfadyen^  D.  •  6 
Macfnrlane.Charles  10 
M'Intyre,  D.  M. .  7 
Mackennal,  Alex- 
ander .  21.  26 
Manners.  Mary  E.  25 
March  ant,  Bessie  18 
Marchant,  J.  .  6 
Marshall.  J.  T.  .  15 
Marshall,  N.  H.  5,  16 
Martineau.  Jas.  21,  26 
Mason,  E.  A.  .  26 
Mather.  Lessels  .  23 
Matheson,    Georeo 

8,  14,  20.  25 
Maver,  J.  S.  .  20 
Meade.  L.  T.  .  18 
Metcalfe,  R.  D.  ,  22 
Meyer,  F.  B.  18,  22 
Michael,  CD.  .  17 
Miller,  Elizabeth  .  4 
Minshall,  E.  .  13 
Moore,  G.F.  .  3 
Morgan,  G.  Camp- 
bell .  15,  18 
Morten,  Honnor  .  13 
Mountain,  J.  .16 
Muiiper.  T.  T.  8,  21 
Neilson,  H.  B.  .  23 
Orchard,  W.  E.  7,  8 
Palmer,  Frederic .  7 
Paton,  J.  B. 

12,   16,  20,  22,  26 

Peake,  A.  S.           .  20 
Pharmnreutical 

Chemist,  A  24 

Picton,  J.  Allnnson  17 

Powicke,  F.  J.       .  2 

Pringle,  A.              .  19 


PAGE 

Pulsford,  John      .  21 

Recs.  F.  A.  .  .  22 
Raid,  J.  .  .7 
Rickett,      Sir       J. 

Compton  .  10,  26 
Riddette,  J.  H.  .  27 
Robarts,  F.  H.  .  15 
Roberts.  J.  E.  .  22 
Roberts,  R.  ,  16 
Rogers,  J.  Guin- 
ness ,  .  2 
Russell,  F.  A.  .  18 
Sabatier,  A.  .  8 
Sanders,  F.  K.  .11 
Schrenck,  E.  von  8 
Scottish  Presbyte- 
rian, A  .  .24 
Shakespeare,  J.  H.  19 
Shepherd,  J.  A.  .  23 
Sinclair,  Archdea- 
con .  21,  26 
Smyth,  Newman  .  4 
Snell,  Bernard  J. 

8,  16,  IS 

Steuart,  J.  A.  .  4 
Stevenson,  J.  G. 

13.   14,  16,  17 

Stewart,  D.  M.     .  1! 

Stuart,  Dunc;:n     .  4 

Sutter,  Julie  .  20 
Swan.  F.  R.            .13 

Swetenham.  L.     .  13 

Tarbolton,  A.  C.  .  16 

Thomas.  H.  Arnold  21 

Toy.  C.  H.   .          .  2 

Tymms,  T.  V.       .  5 

Tynan,  Katharine  4 
Tytler,  S.  .  .18 
Vnrlev,  H.   .          .18 

Veitcii    R      .        7,  9 

Wain,  Louis   .     23,  26 

Walford,  L.  B.    4,  17 

Walker,  W.  L.  .  12 
War^chauer,  J. 

8,   13,  19 

Waters,  N.  McG.  .  1 6 

Watkinson,  W.  L.  18 

Watson,  W.  12,  18 
Weymouth,  R.  F. 

14,  16 
White,  W.  .  .6 
Whiton,  J.  M. 

7.  10,  17,  !?5 

Williams,  T.  R.     .  21 

Wilson,  P.  W.  .  14 
Wood,  J.  R.  .19 
^Vo^l)oi;e,      Miimia 

J.        11,  12,   17,  f7 
i    Yntes,  T.     .          .13 


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